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This is in response Michael Farley's letter: "Your absence from the College" sent to staff last week.


Dear Michael,

I am sorry you are disappointed at me for having chosen not to attend work but I feel I had no other option than doing this to be listened to.

I am not going to make a speech (there have been already many) but with all my respects, I would like to tell you a few things:

1. The UCU has NOT asked students not to enrol, we would never manipulate students.

2. I strongly believe that the strike has not had any major impact on recruitment, as we have not turned anyone away. This is an issue that the College should address (it should have been addressed some years ago) as this decrease has been happening for a few years now.

3. You said in your letter: "It saddens me that your decision not to come to work has had a direct effect on those that Tower Hamlets College is there to educate".

It saddens me even more that you, as the Principal, and the SMT of this College have not fought enough before giving up and taking the decision of cutting courses.

You said that "the difficult decisions that we have arrived at are necessary ... and we need to get on with this academic year".

You cannot possibly imagine how much we desire to solve this situation and come back to work but we cannot possibly do it under these conditions.

I totally disagree with you when you said that the decisions you took are necessary, necessary for what? or for who? We are asking for less than 1% of the budget to keep courses running and give an opportunity to everyone who wants to study.

These cuts and these decisions are affecting specially the most vulnerable people in the community (mainly adults but also teenagers who were not successful at school and come without qualifications, specially those with 18 or 19 years old), the people who need this opportunity the most.

A big part of a College is about second chances and we have been long proud of having students coming to vocational courses (who probably would not be accepted somewhere else) without confidence in themselves at all and see them growing and passing from Vocational Options to Level 1, Level 2, A levels or diplomas and even going to university.

It is a powerful feeling to see students recovering their confidence and believing that they can achieve whatever they want. It does such an impact on their lives that we are devastated with the possibility of leaving them out.

If there have been only one student who benefited from using our (College) money, it would be well used, it would be worth it. I am sad to see that you do not think the same.

You also talked about the concessions that have been made by management. It is deeply sad that these concessions were made after all our protests and we would not have achieved them (the students would not have them) without "our fights" when it is been proven to be possible. I also would not call them ‘concessions’; they should be 'rights'.

I am going to finish by saying that I would stand by a principal who believes that education is the base of society, a principal who, during difficult times, when the government is making cuts to public services, specially to education, uses all his power and influences to fight against it,  a principal who puts education the first, who understands that every child matters and who will do whatever he has to do to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to study and be educated.

We all hope to hear from you soon and solve the situation for the benefit of our students and the College.

Thank you for taking the time and the trouble to read this in this busy time.

Kind regards

A Tower Hamlets College Lecturer

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Photo: Jess Hurd

We've been so busy organising the strike, that the blog has been somewhat neglected. 

To remedy this, there will be a series of catch-up posts of what has been happening since 26 August.

27 August

• Mass pickets at Bethnal Green, Arbour Square and Poplar centres.

• University and College Union (UCU) National Office confirmed their full support for all out indefinite strike action.

• Pickets started at 7.30am.  As you can imagine, at that time of the morning it's cold and dark so huge kudos to those hardy folks for coming out at that time.

• Students gave their full support to the strike by refusing to cross the picket line.

  You may not know this but the majority of students affected by the cuts are socially excluded Muslim women from the Bangladeshi and Somali communities and other second language communities.

  Many had already lost their places in English classes and hundreds on waiting lists for classes will not receive a place.

  Many students, who were tired and fasting during Ramadan, chose to show their protest against the cuts by turning back and withholding their enrolment.

• There was some senior management and police interference with legitimate picketing activities at Poplar and Arbour Square, but pickets continued with perfectly lawful activity despite these irritants.

• during the first day of enrolment, senior management drafted people from all areas of the college, including finance department and media department!

• some senior management left their 'temple' (Poplar site) to man the main entrance at Arbour Square, essentially locking out teaching staff

• Colin 'the Hatchet' Henderson, finance director, deigned to visit Arbour Square and even took a turn manning the Arbour Square entrance!

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We are asking for your help in supporting the strikers who are suffering financially.

Here's what you can do

• Take a collection at work

• Make a direct bank transfer to:

  Account:   UCU Arbour Square
  Sort Code:   089299
  Account Number:  65252262
  Bank:  The Cooperative Bank
  

• Send cheques payable to "UCU Arbour Square" to
  UCU Tower Hamlets College
  c/o LARC
  62 Fieldgate Street
  London   E1 1ES

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We are entering our third week of indefinite strike action at Tower Hamlets College.

And pickets start at 7.30am.

As you can imagine it's cold and dark at that time of the morning.

Come and visit us on the picket lines.  Say hello and make our day.

We are at:

• Poplar E14 0AF

• Arbour Square E1 0PT

• Bethnal Green E2 6AB

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Find out why teaching staff are fighting back

At a meeting on Wednesday 26 August 2009, University & College Union  officials (UCU) reported that they had met with Tower Hamlets College principal, Michael Farley and the finance director, Colin Henderson on the previous day in a last ditch attempt to 'broker a settlement'. 

This came after a summer of massive political pressure from local MPs, councillors and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.   As well as meetings with UCU officials and UCU staff reps.

UCU presented an 'honorable settlement' in which the principal could save face and avert the impending strike.

Principal Michael Farley totally intransigent

However, Barry Lovejoy, head of further education, UCU, received a telephone call from Michael Farley, at the 26 August meeting at 1330 that he (Michael Farley) could not agree Part 1 of the settlement.

Part 1 of the settlement is the reinstatement of teaching staff who are on compulsory redundancy at a cost of around £200,000.

Given that Tower Hamlets College has £6million in the bank, the staffing costs would be less than 1% of the budget.  Isn't this what the money is for?

'Reckless management'

Barry Lovejoy, said of the principal and senior management, "we have a totally reckless management at this college."

At 1349, UCU Head Office served indefinite strike on Tower Hamlets College.

"Michael Farley must take responsibility for drop in numbers" declared Barry Lovejoy.

Want to know more?

• Here's more information about the strike

• Read Jessica Shepherd's article in the Guardian

• We are mentioned in Johann Hari's article in the Independent
  

• Read the background of the campaign here and here

• Read the write up in the East London Advertiser
  

• Read about us on BBC London News

• Did you catch us on BBC London News today?

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