EIS union members fought and won in 2017 (Picture: Duncan Brown)
The fight is hotting up in Scotland’s colleges. Last week the EIS union launched a national statutory industrial action ballot following a derisory 2 percent pay offer from the employers.
It took a declaration of dispute to even get an offer. At the same time the two biggest colleges—City of Glasgow and Edinburgh—have statutory ballots for strikes over jobs and conditions.
This flurry of activity follows a series of consultative ballots with high turnouts and huge majorities voting for action.
Scotland’s Colleges have seen industrial action by EIS-Fela (the lecturers) every year except one since the return to national bargaining in 2015. We were the first union to beat the Tory ballot threshold when that law was introduced.
This was in the days before on-off one-day strikes became fashionable. We took indefinite escalating all-out strikes and won massive improvements in pay, terms and conditions as well as seeing off fire and rehire.
So we are confident of beating the thresholds yet again.
The SNP government has been tied up with its own internal problems and so has paid little attention to what has been going on in the college sector. Now the new first minister will have an all-out war in further education against the EIS as one of the first items in their in-tray. Watch this space.
Donny Gluckstein
Anti-blacklist campaigners have called for solidarity with Lee Fowler. He was dismissed by electrical contractor Bilfinger after he raised safety issues at Cargill’s Refinery site in Merseyside
He also helped four co‑workers win a pay rise.
Lee Fowler commented after his dismissal, “I got the four lads a 14 percent pay rise and I raised health and safety concerns about the site.
“I was involved in a serious accident myself, and the subsequent report found no blame on my part. “I have repeatedly asked to see the safety documents relating to my accident, and that request has been repeatedly denied. And for that I was dismissed? I have fought for workers’ health and safety for over 30 years. They won’t silence me.”
Lee Fowler is a member of the Unite union that is representing him. Frank Morris and Tony Seaman, Unite executive council members for construction, issued a joint statement. It said, “It is really disappointing that in 2023, we continue to see workers who are prepared to raise genuine concerns about safety being targeted.
“Despite all that was promised by major contractors in the High Court in 2016, this issue continues to blight our members’ lives. Blacklisting is one of the reasons that the construction sector has such a horrendous safety record.”
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