NELL Stands In Solidarity With UCU Members

January 8, 2023

Northern England Labour Left stand in solidarity with the UCU members of Darlington College and Furness College during their ongoing industrial disputes. The imposed 21/22 1% pay increase and subsequent 2.75% offer by management to the staff at Darlington College in 22/23, and the 2.5% offered to the staff at Furness College in the face of current inflation rates are real term pay decreases and wage loss. This, on the back of successive years of wage bleeding which has seen over 35% of wages lost within FE, in real terms since 2010, reflects the current political and economic system wherein profit is continuously prioritised over workers. It is a political choice to deprive staff of sufficient pay increases that correspond with the profit-driven rates of inflation being seen, and to refuse to provide wages that actively combat the effects of this current cost-of-living crisis. We recognise these impoverishing pay offers as one of the many factors cumulatively and adversely impacting the lives of working-class educators and support staff. These continued attacks on pay and conditions of FE staff ultimately impact learners and has culminative effects which reach beyond the serious and imminent impact on workers in FE. Workers deserve better than increasing precarity and exploitation.  

We ask CLPs where these institutions reside and neighbour to support these UCU members fighting for their terms and conditions. Furthermore, during this cost-of-living-crisis and beyond, we call for all Labour CLPs to actively support all striking workers.  

Solidarity!