"Not good enough" - First day of strikes at City of Portsmouth College as union members label pay offer as derisory
The first morning of a three-day strike saw college staff take to the picket line in protest over pay and working conditions.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) and University College Union (UCU) are on strike at City of Portsmouth College from today until Friday, January 16.
While the UCU picketed at the Highbury and North Harbour campuses, the NEU member were set up on Tangier Road. The crowd chanted for fair pay and held up signs that said “no wonder everyone leaves” and “you can’t put students first if you put teachers last”.
The biggest bone of contention between the union and the college was the pay rise offer of 2.5 per cent made by the college. On the picket line, Jane Gastrell, industrial organiser for NEU, said the offer was “derisory” and “not good enough” after the Association of Colleges (AoC) recommended a pay uplift of four per cent.
Both NEU and UCU members will be picketing from 8am till 10am each day for the rest of the strike period.
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Ahead of the strikes, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Industrial action is last resort for our members, but staff at City of Portsmouth College have been left with no choice. There is still time for management to make a fair offer that helps close the pay gap between school and college teachers.
“Our demands are reasonable, and management needs to look at those that worked to settle their disputes. Employers must now agree to meaningful sectoral bargaining so further education can avoid the cycle of strike ballots and disruption that we have seen over the past few years.”
UCU alongside its sister unions NEU, GMB, UNISON and Unite, are calling for further education staff to have pay parity with schoolteachers, national workload agreements and a binding national bargaining framework.