Delegates are currently gathering in Brighton for the annual National Education Union (NEU) conference. They are meeting in a period of intense anger against the government’s attacks on support staff, teachers and the education system itself.
By Cormac Kelly, Kirklees NEU (personal capacity)
The union, which represents over 450,000 members, is in the middle of balloting for action against a totally inadequate pay offer, as well as to demand the government increase funding and reduce workload. Voting has already started, with teachers and support staff taking part in online indicative balloting separately but simultaneously. This is part of the wider Save Education campaign, fighting for adequate funding and resourcing for schools.
The government has offered teachers a miserable 6.5% unfunded pay rise over three years. Standards of living have fallen, and there is the inevitable recruitment crisis. Real-terms funding per pupil is at its lowest since 2010. Education has been battered by over a decade and a half of austerity, a policy being continued by the present Labour government.
Schools in crisis
Most schools don’t even have the basics like paper, pens and glue sticks. In many places, children are being educated in near-squalid conditions. Furniture is rarely repaired or replaced, water pours in after rain, heating systems break down, blocked toilets await repair and equipment is inadequate.
The latest threat is to make teachers work longer hours. A review of the 1,265 hours of ‘directed time’ has been announced by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. This is a direct attack on teachers contractual hours. The current directed time policy gives staff some limited protection from the demands of management, and its potential removal will no doubt be reflected in the way votes are cast in the ballot by a stressed and overworked staff.
Staff fight back
There is undoubtedly a steely determination to defy redundancies and cuts reflected in the ‘Light the Fires’ campaign currently running in colleges and schools across the country. In Birmingham, strike action and picketing forced the ATLP multi-academy trust to abandon plans to cut jobs and downgrade others. They faced huge opposition, with 1,000 staff, pupils and parents demonstrating in the city centre.
Battles are taking place in post-16 education, in alliance with sister union UCU over pay and conditions. In London, strikes broke out at hospital schools against the suspension of union reps who raised concerns about a bullying management culture. There isn’t a week that goes by when members aren’t taking action somewhere.
There must be a clear pay demand
Despite low wages and crumbling school buildings, NEU strike ballots have recently struggled to get over the turnout thresholds required in some areas of the country. More work must be done to build on the frustration and anger of the membership in a sustained campaign.
Even now, despite a determined effort to get the vote out, there is a question mark over the outcome and members need clarity about what success would look like. Some delegates argue that the union is in a ‘wait and see’ mode regarding the government’s response to the STRB. Members must be aware that this will be a three-year fight, as the 6.5% recommendation from the government is to be paid across three years unfunded.
There has been a significant move to broaden the demand. Many members feel that pay alone isn’t enough to get members on picket lines anymore. The clear demands must include a fully-funded pay rise, plus a contractually binding reduction in workload (specifically protecting 1265).
Winning the ballot!
NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede notes that resident doctors have been smashing the strike ballot turnout threshold. But that’s because the British Medical Association has campaigned on one crystal clear demand: restoring pay back to 2008 levels (where it was before the economic crash). The latest BMA ballot saw 83% vote to reject the government’s latest offer on a turnout of 65%. The use of terms like a ‘meaningful pay rise’ means little to most teachers. It is also easy for Phillipson to contemptuously sweep this aside using arguments about affordability. A strategic long-term pay policy with concrete demands must be the aim of the union in future.
A well thought-out, lively campaign on funding, using union, parent/guardian and public pressure is needed to improve conditions in schools. This could also demand an end to the scandal of academies creaming off huge amounts of money to fund inflated salaries for CEOs, as well as bonuses and pay offs. This would help put money back in the classroom.
Get Involved
If you agree with this approach, join Socialist Alternative and campaign to turn NEU into a fighting union which can ensure every member of staff is paid well and students get a decent education!
