There is a fight at Access Creative College, east London, over pay, workload and health and safety.
NEU union members struck on Thursday, with around 20 joining the picket line outside the college, which teaches courses in gaming, media, esports, computing and music.
One teacher told Socialist Worker that “pay and conditions is the big one” in the dispute.
“For support staff, their wage is advertised as the London Living Wage but it is paid only in term time so it can never reach it. For a qualified teacher, the starting salary in further education is around £37,500.
“I’m on £29,000 as a qualified teacher, so about £10,000 off the scale — maybe more as I would be higher in the scale after five years.”
And bosses have refused to give workers full school holidays that are aligned with the rest of the education system. “Most schools get 13 weeks, where we only get four weeks. They expect us to come in when the students are on holiday and do admin and twiddle our thumbs,” the teacher said.
“For workload, we need to see 22 hours in a timetable rather than 25 that they have at the minute. And the introduction of breaks at lunch for all staff, as some don’t get it now.”
Bosses at the independent college increased student numbers from 400 to 600 in a year and intend to increase this to 800 in 2027.
But they have not increased the number of workers — or their pay.
On top of this, bosses don’t recognise the NEU union.
Another striker explained, “Management just rented this new building and they are in a lot of debt for it. They are trying to pack it with students and extend timetables.
“People start at 9am and they don’t know when they finish. They advertise a state of the art campus but there aren’t enough rooms.”
She slammed management for failing over working standards and pay. “Wages aren’t balanced nationwide, people are paid under the living wage and staff are hired on a non-permanent basis.
“Staff turnover is wild, meaning that we are understaffed sometimes. Resources work pretty badly. The pay is not the greatest, the working morale, the culture.”
Management met with NEU representatives for the first time this week for negotiations. “We are suspending strikes next week waiting for them to recognise the union and if they don’t, then we will head back out. We have pushed a lot and now we are trying to negotiate,” the striker explained.
“We have 76 percent of staff, they are going to have to recognise the union.”
One NEU member told Socialist Worker that there “are safeguarding and health and safety risks”. “The building itself, the room sizes are too small, especially when you factor in 24 plus students.”
Another worker thought that there needed to be wider action over the state of the education system.
He argued, “When you have been trampled down so far, and you have nowhere to go, you stand up. You stand up because you believe in education.
“The issues we are facing can be seen across the country.
“While this is happening in little pockets, movement happens when we are united. If we all made our voices heard, we can make changes.
“Every government you hear the same thing. I’ve been hearing the same thing since I was first old enough to understand politics. ‘We are going to put money into education and the NHS’, but it never comes. It is election banter.
“This is only going to be stage one. Things need to change, our government policies, attitudes towards funding and more.”
Primary school teachers in Bristol are set to strike over management’s “culture of fear and bullying”, including use of racist tropes.
NEU union members at May Park Primary School, which is run by the Excalibur Trust, are set to strike next Tuesday and then on 10, 11, 17, 18 and 19 March.
An NEU union representative said that members “report being harassed and bullied” by “certain elements of school leadership”.
They added that members “have also complained about management using racist tropes when recording concerns about staff”. “Black members of staff” are “being put under undue scrutiny and held to different standards to other colleagues.”
Management has failed to adequately respond to NEU members’ demands and “behaviour by certain elements of the school leadership has led to a complete lack of trust from our members”.
Education workers at Oak Lodge School, a specialist school in Wandsworth, south London, for students with hearing, speech, language and communication needs, struck on Thursday.
They are fighting against management’s restructuring that would mean cuts to the jobs of two teachers, with an unacceptable increase in workload for remaining workers.
And it would mean cuts to working hours for teaching assistants, including weekly training sessions. Bosses already cut most of these workers’ hours last year.
There has also been inadequate consultation with meetings held without unions. Performance related pay is still being applied despite it being dropped by the government.
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