Short: Is there an alternative to union membership for legal cover?
Long: I work in FE, where the local choice of union representation is UCU and NEU.
UCU are good at striking but not very good at getting things done, currently two colleges are merging and their head office is not mediating a common policy between sites, so that there are two un-unified UCU branches not advocating the same thing.
I'm currently in the NEU, but they have not mentioned FE since the ATL merged with the NUT. Furthermore, any increase in pay and conditions the NEU manage to get will be for school teachers and therefore will not benefit FE Lecturers.
But I don't think that the unions will manage to improve pay and conditions, things have only got worse and I don't see the point of my subs paying for things like briefings about why too much testing is a bad thing.
So, despite being generally a union person I am thinking of dropping out. The problem I have is that union membership includes legal cover in the case where I either set a student on fire during a practical or allegations are made.
