By Socialist Alternative members in the National Education Union
This year’s conference of the National Education Union (NEU) met in Harrogate at a time of crisis in Britain’s schools and public services generally. Any expectations teachers might have had of a Labour government have disappeared over the last ten months as school budgets go into deficit, teaching assistants lose their jobs and newly qualified teachers, overwhelmed by workload pressures, leave the profession.
The new Labour government settled the 2023-24 pay dispute quickly in July 2024 with a promise of funding that never materialised. In any case the 5% awarded didn’t begin to address what teachers had lost over a decade or more of austerity. An indicative ballot of NEU members held in the run-up to Easter showed a massive 94% rejection of a 2.8% offer and 83% support for action.
Win the ballot
In light of this, Conference voted to hold an industrial action ballot in the summer term if the June Spending Review allocates only an unfunded 2.8% to teachers’ pay.
A successful ballot would then mean teachers can take action earlier in the academic year, unlike 2023-24 when action only began after Christmas and, due to hesitation by the union leadership, was beginning to peter out by July.
This could be the first sign of a revolt against the Labour government’s Austerity 2.0. The NEU should also reach out to other unions whose members are under attack under the new wave of austerity, to coordinate strike action and build a wider, fighting movement to fight back against these attacks.
Workload also needs to be central to the next pay campaign. We need a new national contract that sets out a fixed limit on the number of hours we should be made to work. Finally, to win, we need an action strategy which can mobilise members through district and regional rallies, and a strike plan that starts early and escalates rapidly.
Farage’s ‘war’ on NEU
If we win the ballot and mount a serious campaign of industrial action we can cut across the reactionary Reform UK agenda. Farage has declared war on the NEU. General Secretary Daniel Kebede is right to call out Reform UK as a racist and right-wing party. It is led by posh boys like Farage and Tice, both privately educated millionaires masquerading as ‘men of the people.’
Farage openly admires Trump’s detention and deportation campaign against immigrants. His divisive views will rightly be rejected by most teachers who are committed to equal treatment of everyone they teach. If Reform UK can be bankrolled by US billionaires it is only right that the NEU uses its political fund to campaign in support of candidates who reflect union views.
Kebede’s stance against Reform UK is welcome, but he was visibly disappointed by the vote to ballot for industrial action which cuts across his attempts to woo the Labour government. However, the lack of an independent working class fightback is just what has created fertile ground for Reform’s politics to gain an echo.
NEU members will need to be watchful and demand a firm lead and clear strategy to win pay restoration. A fighting approach against this government is essential for winning the fight to save our schools, as well as to pave the way for a political alternative that can fight back against not just Starmer, but also challenge Reform UK and the rising right.
