Lewisham and Southwark Pay Campaign Hardship Fund

This month, I couldn’t pay my child’s school dinners or childcare.

My pay ran out two weeks before the end of the month. The stress of the cost of living crisis is already keeping me and many of my colleagues awake at night before energy bills jump up again next month.

I work full-time as a teacher in Further Education. Thatcher took our sector out of local democratic control and marketised it. Since then, our education workers are among the lowest paid, while our executives’ pay is eye-watering. The salary package for the CEO of our college group exceeds £240k, ten times what some of my colleagues earn.

Even before the cost of living crisis, things were extremely tight. Austerity brought years of pay freezes which mean there’s been a 35% real terms pay cut in Further Education over the last 12 years. As cuts have piled up, we find ourselves working more and more intensely to fill the gaps left in admin and support. Returning home exhausted yet not even able to pay the bills is crushing.

In recent weeks, I have found myself checking my banking app three times a day, trying to find a way to make the books balance. But there’s no way the maths can add up with our pay as it stands. My rent went up 10% this year; my energy bills by £120 a month; food bills have shot up. The current pay offer from management doesn’t begin to address this.

That’s why we are on strike this month - currently with 10 days of action planned. It’s why it is so important that we win. We love our community and working in education and we want our livelihoods to be sustainable. We stand in solidarity with all who are struggling at the moment and all who are taking action for a fairer distribution of wealth in society.

If you’re in a position to donate to Lewisham and Southwark College’s hardship fund, it will help our members to take part in action for a fair pay deal. We hope our action is part of a movement that ensures every person can live a decent life, not overwhelmed by stress and hardship.

However you’re able to support our action, we really appreciate your solidarity.