Fight ESOL cuts: defend asylum seekers and migrant workers
In October last year Bill Rammell, minister for education and lifelong learning, announced massive cuts in the funding of 'English as a Second or Other Language Courses'. On the 15th January, the University and Colleges Union held a public meeting in London of a mounting coalition of trade unionists, ESOL teachers and migrant and refugee organisations to 'launch' the 'fight back'. Existing universal entitlement to free ESOL training up to level 2 is to be removed with fee remission available only to people receiving means tested benefits and tax-credits. Migrant workers are told that that if...