Statement from the NASUWT and NUT unions.
The two largest teacher unions, the NASUWT and the NUT, representing nine out of ten teachers, are today confirming the next phase of their jointly coordinated campaign to Protect Teachers and Defend Education.
Following the continued refusal of the Secretary of State to genuinely engage with the NUT and the NASUWT to seek to resolve our trade disputes with him, plans are in place for the next stage of industrial action which will include
1st October – strike action in the Eastern, East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside regions
17th October – strike action in North East, London, South East and South West regions
On the strike days teachers will be attending a series of regional rallies to demonstrate their anger, frustration and concern.
This action follows the successful strike action taken in the North West of England on the 27 June in which thousands of teachers took part.
In contrast to the Secretary of State, the Welsh Government has been prepared to engage in constructive talks to seek to avoid the escalation of the rolling programme of strike action in Wales. A further announcement will be made on the situation in Wales in due course.
Plans are also in place for a one-day, all-out national strike before the end of the Autumn term.
Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said:
“At the start of the new academic year, the last thing teachers wish to be doing is preparing for further industrial action. It is a great shame that the Education Secretary has let things get to this stage.
“With pay pensions and working conditions being systematically attacked and an Education Secretary who refuses to listen or negotiate teachers now however have no other choice.
“Michael Gove has demoralised an entire profession, it is time that he started to listen for the sake of teachers, pupils and education.”
Chris Keates, General Secretary of the NASUWT, said:
“The attacks on teachers are relentless.
“The reward for their hard work, dedication and commitment has been a vicious assault on their pay, conditions and professionalism.
“Teachers will be angered by the recklessness of the Secretary of State’s continuing failure to take seriously their concerns and engage in genuine discussions to address them.”
Notes to editors
The NASUWT and NUT’s disputes with the Secretary of State for Education are over adverse changes to teachers’ pay, pensions, working conditions and jobs.
I would love to see parents and pupils marching alongside their teachers, refusing the divide and rule tactics of Gove and completely disarming the competetive rhetoric that the newscasters so love. How can we encourage this to happen?
I completely agree with this Micheline…its about changing the ‘game’. ‘Families Support Teachers’ banners! It should work both ways too. When my daughters Special School for Medical Needs was closed down in the cuts, the teachers refused to join the parents and pupils public protests for fear of harming their careers and pensions. School was closed. They all lost their jobs. Soon after I saw the same teachers demonstrating for pensions while the public was whipped up to say teachers were privileged compared to those in other jobs. SAD. Organisations of families with children, with or without special needs, could be contacted to join in this fight for A REAL AND INCLUSIVE EDUCATION. But is LU ready to do campaigns yet?
An analysis of the dispute here – http://howardstevenson.org/2013/09/06/teachers-on-strike-a-struggle-for-the-future-of-teaching/
I agree with Howard, that the fight against PRP is fundamentally about a fight for a decent education for working class children, Gove’s game is to create a two tier system that will permanently advantage the wealthy, and the pace of the academisation process, makes this an increasingly frightening prospect.
As an NUT school rep from the North West, I took part in the strike action on the 27th June. Working jointly with the NAS rep, we took 4 times as many teachers on the strike rally in Manchester, as had attended similar events in the past. Several were new teachers and the impact of 5,000 teachers on the streets of Manchester and the final rally was uplifting and opened the eyes of several to the potential of collective action.
The key to increasing the resistance and developing this further though, does come back to the fight over PRP. While the unions nationally are organising regional strikes; the legislation is in and schools are already negotiating separately over pay policy and inroads are being made. In my school, we were able to reject a particularly draconian policy at the end of last term and force the head to revert to the NUT/NAS model policy. The key to our success was a strong union organisation on the ground, built up over the last 4 years by resisting every attempt to attack our conditions and fighting over workload issues. Also, we began developing links between schools in relation to pay policy’ i.e. finding out what is going on in other schools;this was the most powerful decider in winning the vote. I found that local officials are often complacent, placing too much store by the national strike programme, general meetings are inquorate and teachers confidence in the union must be built within the school. In addition, locally, the union cannot rely upon joint negotiations with the local authority on behalf of all schools, because even within the union model policies, there is room for heads to manoeuvre by introducing their own unreasonable criteria for pay progression.
I am currently in the process of trying to develop a network of like minded teachers within Greater Manchester, we already have a small number on an email link, so if anyone reading this is in Greater Manchester please get in touch!