Fight college cuts

Date: 22 April 2010

UNISON General Secretary Candidate calls for joint action to fight College cuts

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Paul Holmes, rank and file candidate in the forthcoming election for Unison General Secretary today responded to Unison's survey showing that three quarters of Further Education Colleges are planning redundancies with a call for trade union unity.

"It is clear that our members in Further Education face a nationwide jobs crisis," said Holmes, "and it is the exact same crisis faced by members of the lecturers' UCU union. As a branch secretary of a Unison branch, with 300 members in Kirklees FE College, I wholeheartedly support calls for joint action with the UCU"

"With thousands of jobs on the line, we cannot afford delay or division. Time and again in recent years we have failed to achieve unity with other trade unions," Holmes observed.

"I am calling for immediate action to co-ordinate our response to cuts in Further and Higher Education between Unison and UCU, with jointly organised ballots for industrial action. Unison should meet with the UCU as a matter of urgency to discuss a joint national campaign. The cuts proposed for FE colleges are nothing sort of savage. Only a joint, national fight will reverse this."

ENDS

Note to Editors

Details of the Paul Holmes campaign are at www.paulholmeskirklees.blogspot.com