In 2016, Westminster Kingsway College merged with City & Islington and then CONEL to form what is now Capital City College,spread across 11 sites. The merger created serious organisational challenges —and management expected those challenges to weaken staff pay, conditions, and collective strength.

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However, through listening and engaging members, developing new reps and clear leadership;  we've raised pay and improved conditions across the entire group, resisting the race to the bottom that management sought to impose. We have gained consistent wins - we see each action as a phase to improving a better college.

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The task of representation remains complex, as different sites and departments face different pressures. Effective trade union leadership is not about pretending those differences don’t exist. But we need to identify the shared issues that unite members, build collective confidence, and then deliver outcomes that improve members conditions. As educationalists as well as trade unionists, we are not only seeking to improve members conditions, we see how this impacts the conditions for our students and the environments that they learn in. We are the guardians of the education - we want them to have small class sizes, access to resources and teachers that aren't burnt out.

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We have seen time and again, that our branch organisation is strengthened when we take collective action – it breaks down the barriers of feeling isolated and burnt out by work. But critically, collective action is what forces management to negotiate seriously. The strike actions we have taken were effective because members were heard, organised, and prepared to act.

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As a result of that collective strength and through negotiations, we have:

Won pay awards:

-           25/ 26: 4% for all, 4.5% for those £25k

-           24 / 25 = 3% for those under £30k, 2.5% for over30k

-           23 / 24 = 6.5% for those up to £52,000, 4% fort hose above

-           21/22 = 9% for those under £30k and 6.5% for those over.

Won on improvements on workload:

-           Wellbeing and Workload Protocols

-           Agreement that class sizes will not exceed 22students

-           A Workload Committee established as a result of our recent dispute

Improved lesson observations system

-           Management imposed a “any lesson, any lecturer by any manager” observation regime, this was overturned through strike action

-           It was reduced down to three, 15 minute ungraded classroom visits

-           Now reduced down to 2 classroom visits, the secondone staff identify the class

Pushed back against casualisation – through strike action in2018, we won a fractionalisation agreement for those who had been working for 3years.

Gained more holiday – due to our recent strike action, we have won an additional 8 days annual leave.

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Have we won everything we ever demanded? Of course not. But we have consistently demonstrated collective power, and as a resultmanagement now think twice before acting. That is not accidental, but the outcome of sustained organising and leadership.

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Negotiators, no matter how skilled, are only effective when management know they are backed by members who are organised and prepared toact. Management always look over your shoulder. In this branch, what they seeis strength.

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I have a proven record of standing up for members —listening to them, coordinating across sites and interests, and turning that organisation into real, material gains.

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We need UCU to stand up for all its members – in FE we need to win national binding bargaining, collective action will be needed to winthis. In HE there needs to be a national strategy to stop the wave of redundancies.Adult Ed, needs a higher profile, alongside Prison Education – both have beencut but are essential for society.

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We need UCU to listen to rank and file members, effectively coordinate their collective strength so that we can win for all members.

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