Labour candidate joins college staff on picket line
3 May 2017
Labour’s Western Isles’ general election candidate is calling on college management to honour a deal that was agreed last year.
Lecturers at Lews Castle College, along with their colleagues across Scotland, are out on strike for the second time in eight days, in a dispute over a pay harmonisation agreement which was reached last year.
Ealasaid MacDonald spent the morning on the picket line with local Lews Castle College staff.
Mrs Macdonald said colleges are refusing to implement the agreed pay deal if lecturers won’t sign up to worse terms and conditions such as increased hours of service, reduction in class preparation time and ripping up pay conservation agreements.
He said: “The college here in Lewis is not just essential to our education system but to the very future of our islands. It is simply underhand that the management now renege on a deal which was agreed only last year.
“The Scottish Government simply must intervene, they have the power and must not stand aside.
“On the picket line today I heard from lecturers, all committed to delivering a positive education for our students. They neither ant to be striking, nor can they afford it. They simply want what is fair and what was promised.
“I believe that supporting our workers across the islands maintain their standards at work is an essential element of the role of an MP. Just a pity that our MP was nowhere to be seen today.”
Labour’s general election candidate, Ealasaid MacDonald, on the picket line