Created on: 22 Feb 2021
The Forth Valley strike ballot is open until Thursday 25th February – make sure you use a few minutes to take a walk to the nearest post box and post your ballot before Tuesday night!
Our Statutory Ballot for Strike Action to support our colleagues is separate to the National FELA Dispute ballot although they are running at the same time – you may therefore receive two ballot papers on the same day. They are not duplicates – and we urge you to vote Yes in both.
Why are the Branch recommending a Yes vote?
Remember when we all took action to get national bargaining in the first place? Now we need to take action to protect it!
But this doesn’t impact me…
Yes, it does! You are a member of a union to:
I think we have already lost. I don’t see the point in striking.
Far from it! We have had productive movement on the management position since March 2020. Here’s a timeline of what decisions branch members have made so far, management’s responses, and what we have achieved together. Getting out the vote, and voting Yes, is the final push we need to ensure all of us and our colleagues are treated fairly!
See the timeline below which shows how far we’ve come in this dispute. Don’t give up now!
Help us track the progress of the ballot by letting the branch reps know when you have voted!
Staff Stress and Anxiety
If you have any meetings with your line manager or HR regarding work-related health issues, we encourage you to make the points which we have already made in the collective grievance i.e. that the introduction of the Instructor Assessor post and senior management’s intransigence is causing great stress and anxiety amongst staff – remember you can seek support from branch reps ahead of any meetings with management on this issue.
Here’s some anonymised quotes from members who are on Instructor Assessor roles:
“I have had 8 weeks of working 35 hours contact, 4 weeks working 17 hours contact and 4 weeks working 28 hours contact. No time for marking or prep.”
“I left industry to be a lecturer and wanted to get my TQFE. Now the management are refusing to let me get any teaching qualification and they are treating me as if the stress is my fault. I’ve worked in some colourful places, but I have never experienced management like this.”
“I feel totally strung out, Stressed, exhausted and demotivated, anxiety is through the roof, wake up most mornings with dread thinking about what the day will bring. I feel like I jump through emotions really quickly so can go from feeling sad, to angry, feel like I very rarely laugh in work anymore and I used to love being here.”
“We were told we could now take our (reduced) holidays whenever we want, including during term time. That is clearly not the case. We now have to provide cover for each other with people having their holidays refused. In reality, we will take our holidays when the College is closed but we have less holidays to take. There’s no benefit.”
Here's Charlie Montgomery, EIS-FELA President, posting his national ballot paper and watching to make sure you do the same!
Branch Rep contact details
Branch Convenor – Anne Marie Harley Anne-marie.Harley@forthvalley.ac.uk
Branch Secretary and H&S – Alison Addie alison.addie@forthvalley.ac.uk
Assistant Branch Secretary - Ruth Davis Ruth.Davis@forthvalley.ac.uk
Depute Branch Convenor – Paul Sweeney Paul.Sweeney@forthvalley.ac.uk
