City of Glasgow College lecturers to continue striking for 4th month

Lecturers at the City of Glasgow College will continue to take industrial action in a row about the cutting of course hours and enforcing compulsory redundancies.

In a ballot, organised by the Educational Institute of Scotland - Further Education Lecturers’ Association (EIS-FELA), 87% of members voted in favour of continuing their programme of industrial action in a long-running dispute over redundancies and working conditions, with 81% backing continuing strikes as part of the industrial action.

EIS general secretary Andrea Bradley said, “This is an extremely strong ballot result, which demonstrates that lecturers at City of Glasgow College will not be cowed by the intimidatory tactics of the college management.

"Despite a very long-running dispute and the pain of taking industrial action, our members at City of Glasgow College remain resolute and united in their determination to fight the damaging job and course cuts being forced onto students and staff by the college management.”

The ballot result means that the programme of industrial action will continue, until a resolution to the dispute is reached.

Minority support, say bosses

A spokesperson for City of Glasgow College attacked the union's claims of a mandate as misleading, saying:

“EIS-FELA are deliberately targeting students with further industrial action and trying to cause maximum disruption to learning and teaching.

"The reality is that only a minority of EIS-FELA members voted for further strike action and they have lost an eighth of their members since they started this industrial dispute.

"We remain grateful to the majority of our teaching staff who continue to work to support our students on their learning journey.

“The national EIS-FELA body has been demonstrating outside the Scottish Parliament and has called on the Scottish Government to fix the national crisis affecting colleges, so they recognise it is a national issue. Continuing with local strikes during a national funding issue cannot change anything; all it does is further disrupt our students."

“All Scottish colleges face substantial funding and financial challenges from real-term cuts, plus high energy, inflation and staff costs. The claw back of £26 million that had been promised to the college sector in this year's Scottish Government budget exacerbates an already challenging financial landscape for the College.”

Further dates for strike action will be announced in due course.

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