Staff strike at City College Birmingham

Staff at City College Birmingham will be on strike on 21 June in protest against job losses and course closures. The industrial action by members of UCU comes as staff and students throughout the country hold nationwide protests against funding cuts in further, higher and adult education ahead of next Tuesday's budget.
 
UCU members will be on picket lines from 7am at all the college's sites, including the main campuses at Handsworth and Fordrough. At 12.30 pm staff and students from across Birmingham will assemble outside UCU's regional headquarters by Alpha Tower. They will then march through the city centre to the Skills Funding Agency on Bartholomew Row where they will hand in a petition calling for education funding to be protected at 1.15pm (see notes for directions).
 
The news comes as UCU today suspended strike action at Wolverhampton College after the college withdrew its threat of compulsory redundancies and just a week after the union ended its dispute at South College Birmingham. The union remains in dispute with City College Birmingham and its neighbour, Birmingham Metropolitan College, and today called on both institutions to urgently step back from punitive cuts.
 
City College Birmingham is planning to get rid of 78 posts and to close its supported learning division which provides basic English and maths courses for homeless students, as well as support for disabled students and those with learning disabilities. In addition the cuts will affect classes in English for speakers of other Languages (ESOL). Birmingham Metropolitan College has announced plans to make up to 100 job cuts.
 
Caroline Gray, a UCU member who teaches at City College Birmingham, said: 'Staff have been left with little choice but to take this action. It is essential that we send out a clear message to the college and the government about the devastating impact cuts will have on front-line services. The planned job losses and closure of adult-supported learning will hit some of the most vulnerable adults and disadvantaged people in Birmingham and get rid of a vital lifeline."
 
UCU regional official for the West Midlands, Nick Varney, said: 'It is a real shame that things have to come to this. City College Birmingham and Birmingham Metropolitan College should follow the example  of Wolverhampton and South Birmingham or risk being seen as rogue institutions within the region. Instead of making punitive cuts to vital jobs and courses, management should be joining with staff and students to call for education to be protected in this Tuesday's budget.'