Programme for development

Salaries and conditions of service more than usually dominated the 64th annual conference of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutions at Manchester last month. Delegates voted for the restoration of free collective bargaining and the abolition of the Burnham Further Education Committee. The recent Pooling Committee memorandum on staff/student ratios was strongly rejected, following the redundancies at Maidstone College of Art; and sanctions were threatened wherever working conditions were being worsened or not improved, or even to secure a better pensions deal.