By Socialist Alternative members in the National Education Union
In 2024 teachers in the National Education Union (NEU) took an unprecedented eight days of strike action in an attempt to restore levels of pay which had declined by 20% since 2010. Last July, NEU members were still voting by a majority for further action in September, but relief at the change of government gave the NEU Executive an opportunity to bounce teachers into a ‘yes’ vote on the 5.5% offer.
If teachers placed hopes in a Labour government to defend public services, they will have been sorely disappointed. This year, teachers have been offered only 2.8% and the offer is not even fully funded. For instance, schools are expected to find the increase from their own budgets. Already it has been reported that schools are planning to lose staff, including vital teaching assistants, who make up half the union’s membership.
Teaching assistants’ pay is negotiated separately in a National Joint Council (NJC) where they have been represented by other unions such as Unite and UNISON. In past years the other NJC unions have strenuously resisted the involvement of the NEU but this year, in a small but welcome move, NEU members are being consulted over the pay claim.
With the latest teacher recruitment targets seriously undershot and one in four new teachers leaving within three years, the battle for pay restoration is critical. Under the campaign slogan ‘Fund Fair Pay’ NEU members are taking part in an indicative ballot, starting 1 March and ending 11 April.
The results of this ballot will feed into the debate at the union’s conference, so we urge all union members to deliver the highest possible vote for strike action. A formal ballot will then take place in the summer term, with a view to industrial action this autumn. This is at least a step forward on the 2023-24 action campaign which was dragged out between February and July, into a summer term when teachers’ leverage was dwindling. The lesson for industrial action must be: start early and escalate rapidly.
There are lessons too in the recent dispute in non- academised sixth form colleges, where teachers took eight days action over two months, and still ended up with a lower offer of 3.5% than the 5.5% academy staff received. The government could easily have resolved this dispute at little cost, but refused to do so. This is a clear warning shot over the NEU’s bows. Disgracefully it was funded only up to 2% with colleges being told to make up the 1.5% difference from money they had saved by staff striking!
Teachers will need a militant and determined leadership at school and executive level to win this dispute.
We need:
- 10% or £5,000 pay rise – whichever is greater.
- One-day national strike action, rapidly escalating to all-out action
