Five further education colleges in London began their third wave of strikes last week over pay and working conditions. Three of the colleges are part of the Capital City College Group, which includes City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, and the other two are Croydon and Lambeth.
At the same time workers at the Royal College of Art (RCA) began a three day strike last Tuesday against casualisation. Many staff, up to 90%, are paid on an hourly basis on zero hour or short term contracts and have to go between the different arts universities in London. RCA strikers marched to join a rally of the Capital City College strikers. This move to unite university and further education staff is a welcome development.
RCA staff will strike again on 1st, 4th, 15th and 19th November whilst FE college strikers continued their strikes to last Friday.