As a result of the wholly unnecessary actions and damaging behaviour of the paid officers of the Scottish Region of UNISON last week, Scottish UNISON stewards have now responded and voted almost unanimously to begin the first ever national stewards strike in Further Education. This strike is against the corporate body of the trade union which is not democratically elected by you, unlike ourselves.

The strike will begin immediately and will involve all stewards and H & S stewards in Scotland’s colleges. This action will mean that stewards will immediately withdraw from all college negotiating and consultation forums and from undertaking any casework. We will also be boycotting all meetings with the paid officers of the union until our reasonable demands are addressed. We do not take this action lightly but feel that we have no other option. We believe this is the only alternative to mass steward resignations.

The intention is not to unduly disrupt things for members. However, given the sudden coup staged by full-time staff on the 7th of November, we believe we have no option in order that we preserve our democratic structures and the collective gains which we have made over the last five years. These wins have far outstripped those in most other sectors in the union. National negotiations are also at a crucial stage, and we were on the cusp of making more significant progress on national agreements in relation to job security and job evaluation.