Birmingham college lecturers walk out in row over job cuts

Jun 16 2009 by Tony Collins, Birmingham Post

A college in Birmingham was hit by major disruption today as lecturers went on strike in protest at the loss of 76 jobs.

Members of the University and College Union were looking to bring City College Birmingham to a standstill on the back of a 95 per cent “yes” vote in favour of walking out.

The strike action, which will include a lunchtime rally in Handsworth Park, close to the college’s main Handsworth site, comes despite a direct plea to staff from chair of governors, Henry Coore.

He warned that if the college avoided making redundancies now, a “far greater number of jobs” would be lost in the future.

And he warned that the college could be forced to close if student enrolments did not increase to ease its current financial plight.

Striking lecturers were picketing City College’s Handsworth campus from 8am.

The union said it was “deeply concerned” about the impact that job losses and worsening conditions of service will have, particularly on key social programmes.

It also claimed that the redundancies would result in those lecturers who survived having their teaching hours “massively increased”.

UCU regional official, Nick Varney, said: “The college needs to take a long hard look at itself. Management can point to a failure in funding as much as they like, but introducing draconian changes to the contracts of staff and slashing jobs is simply not the answer.

“This will undermine the quality of provision and lead to more cuts down the line.”

He added: “It is criminal that at a time when we should be looking to extend further education’s ability to meet the needs of our communities, City College Birmingham is looking to get rid of staff and key courses. If these cuts go ahead it will be the most socially deprived areas of Birmingham that suffer the most.”

Mr Coore urged staff in his letter to consider the “serious consequences” of striking.

He said there was no fundamental difference between the college governors/management and the unions about the importance of retaining as many jobs as possible.

But he added: “The difference is that we believe firmly, with the benefit of having analysed the college’s finances, that avoiding redundancies now would result in a far greater number of jobs going in the future.

“Indeed, without the redundancy programme we propose and the contractual changes we are considering, we are very likely to see the closure of the college or a merger. Neither of these two scenarios is more attractive than the current redundancy programme.”

The college has been given a Notice to Improve by the Learning and Skills Council to bring its budget under control.

Interim principal David Gibson said City College, which has 25,000 students, would remain open at all nine campuses.