Tutors and support staff were on strike last week, on 29th January, over a dispute regarding redundancies at the Sheffield College. Staff took to the picket lines despite arctic weather conditions, which had no effect on spirits, with staff stopping all traffic into the college, as well as students, in order to win their support. Natasha Sorrell of the Sheffield Marxists reports.
Tutors and support staff were on strike last week, on 29th January, over a dispute regarding redundancies at the Sheffield College. Staff took to the picket lines despite arctic weather conditions, including constant snow making for a soaked picket line. This had no effect on spirits though with staff stopping all traffic into the college, as well as students, in order to win their support.
Redundancies
College management made the decision before Christmas to make 75 members of staff redundant; and whilst many took, or were pressured into, voluntary redundancy, reducing the number forced out, the number of staff still facing redundancy or downgrading is significant.
Today marked the first day of industrial action for college staff, with proposed rolling strikes around the four campus sites in addition to action short-of-strike, including a boycott of the dreaded observations that determine staff performance and contribute towards the boot towards the door that staff are facing.
Student support
Today’s action received crucial support from the College Students’ Union, whose President issued a statement in ‘full solidarity’ with striking staff. In addition, the Student Union President stated that the college had received letters of support from individual students.
One of the main tasks on the picket line this morning for Socialist Appeal members who attended was to discuss the strike action with students in order to win their support to the struggle.
Students and young workers have faced drastic cuts to the provisions that provide them with access to education and a basic standard of living, with the eradication of EMA, rocketing university fees, and the explosion of zero-hours contracts to mention a few.
In addition, the cuts to FE College funding will have a direct effect on students learning in such colleges. With workloads increasing, wages decreeing and staff members being chopped, the quality of education that we can provide will surely be eroded.
This fight against redundancies is as much a fight of the students as it is of the staff, and uniting together is the best way to put a stop to it with a strong demonstration of the strength of those who truly run the college.
Causes in capitalism
As long as we live within capitalist society there will be cuts and austerity, and industrial action will have to be taken to protect basic workers’ rights.
Since the crisis of capitalism in 2008 we have seen increased attacks to working conditions and pay, with increased industrial action across workplaces in response.
In such conditions it is crucial that students and workers unite in their places of work and study in order to defend themselves, as the capitalists claw back the reforms won by previous generations. With the squeeze on public sector spending, those rung dry are inevitably the workers.
Rather than cutting or even capping the rise of chief executives’ and management’s pay, the college has turned to the workers as a source from which to claw back their profits, ignoring the crucial work that staff members carry out in teaching and supporting students — surely the only reason that the college should exist?! This course of action inevitably demonstrates the inherently illogical position of capitalism in its lust for profits above all else.
Next steps
The UCU must continue with its industrial action and continue to seek student support, uniting the fight against education cuts. At the same time, the UCU leadership should be linking up with the other unions in order to take joint action against the Tory Coalition and their entire programme of austerity, beginning with a 24-hour general strike.
We must also acknowledge though, that unless we uproot the main cause, capitalism, the symptoms of its crises will continue to be felt in workplaces all over the world. In this sense, the struggle needed is a political one – the struggle to transform society. The union leadership, therefore, must be active in arguing across the labour movement for a socialist programme as the only alternative to austerity.
If we want to end uncertain employment and attacks to already precarious wages and conditions then we must unite our struggles and fight for socialism. A socialist society is the only way in which we can guarantee full employment, sustainable working conditions, fair pay and a fair workload.
