LANAC Steering Committee in January to discuss how to build fightback against Gove's 'war' on teachers

Over 50 delegates and visitors from NUT Associations right across England gathered in Leicester on December 8th for the second conference of the Local Associations National Action Campaign (LANAC).

LANAC was created following two packed fringe meetings at NUT Conference in Torquay this Easter called by delegates angered by the continued failure of the Union to call further national strike action over the attacks on teachers’ pensions.

This latest LANAC conference was held just after Michael Gove had also confirmed his ‘war’ on teachers’ pay. Teachers wanted to meet up even at this late stage of a long autumn term because we all understood that teaching unions needed to urgently respond by calling national strike action to repel these latest attacks.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of supporters of LANAC, the NUT National Executive meeting held just a few days later failed to commit to action early next term. This dangerous hesitation at the top of the Union makes clear just how important a role LANAC is going to have to play in organising from below to make sure Gove does not succeed in inflicting a major defeat on teachers - with all the long-lasting damage that could also inflict on children’s education.

The NUT Executive’s hesitancy also gives the next LANAC Steering Committee on Saturday January 19 in Coventry an added significance. It is planned to be held from 11am - 3pm, Saturday JANUARY 19th 2013, at the Coventry Transport Museum CV1 1JD http://www.transport-museum.com.
PLEASE NOTE, as a London NUT Reps Briefing has now been called for that date,  LANAC Officers are liaising about whether arrangements will be altered - look out for further details

LANAC’s policies and campaigns are democratically decided. Every NUT Association who supports LANAC’s aims, and affiliates to the campaign, is entitled to send a voting delegate to that Steering Committee meeting to take part in our urgent debate as to how LANAC can organise to make sure the teaching unions mobilise to defeat Gove’s attacks.

If you are not sure whether your Association is affiliated, please get in touch.

Below, is a report summarising the discussions on December 8th:

The first session of the LANAC Conference, reviewing the lessons of this term’s ‘Phase One’ action, was opened by Julie Lyon-Taylor from Liverpool NUT and an NUT National Officer.

Pride of place was given to Steve Charles, NUT rep at Stratford Academy in Newham where, following nine days of strike action, management were forced to reverse their disgraceful docking of 15% from the pay of teachers taking part in the national action-short-of-strike action campaign. This success is the best answer to Gove’s latest attempts to order more schools to use the same provocative tactics to undermine trade union organisation.

That wasn’t the only victory gained at Stratford. Steve explained how, before the action, management had been making unannounced classroom visits to lessons every day, demanding that all teachers kept detailed lesson plans written in an unhelpful imposed school format and faced disciplinary action if they were found wanting. Those visits have now stopped.

The action at Stratford also has other vital lessons that any waverers on the NUT Executive need to consider. Firstly, teachers’ anger at their treatment meant that, with a clear lead from Steve as rep, a fairly inactive union group was galvanised into determined action. Secondly, far from attacking the strikers as Gove and co. might assume, parents instead turned on the school management and helped force the headteacher into retreat. There is no reason why the same determination and support can’t be built on a national scale.

Two other school reps, Karen Wheeler from Deptford Green in Lewisham and Tom Carlyle from Bishop Challoner in Tower Hamlets also reported on victories won in their schools over observations and ‘mocksteds’ after teachers threatened escalation to strike action.

Other contributions and reports from Nottingham, Croydon, Liverpool, Birmingham, Wakefield, Hackney, Hull, Lewisham, Southwark and Lewes/Eastbourne/Wealden pointed out how the ‘Phase One’ action had helped build union organisation and rank-and-file confidence but, at the same time, was not enough on its own to turn the tide on Gove.

Many reps described important local successes but also reported that the ‘Phase One’ action was inevitably ‘patchy’, with some school groups lacking in confidence to take school-based action alone. While maintaining and extending the ‘Phase One’ action, what was urgently needed was to now urgently move to ‘Phase Two’ and call national strike action.

As Mick Wale, NUT Divisional Secretary from Hull, put it “we are winning individual battles but we need to win the war”. Pointing out the harsh reality facing teachers, Mick explained how he had just taken eight calls in his NUT Office in one week from teachers asking for help in being released from their contracts as they couldn’t take the unending stress and workload of teaching any longer.

Two NUT Executive members introduced the afternoon sessions with presentations updating delegates on the latest threats (see www.nutlan.org.uk for copies to download and use). Patrick Murphy from Leeds outlined the threats to union facility time and organisation and how the NUT needed to organise to meet those challenges. Martin Powell-Davies from London explained exactly how severe the attacks on pay structure contained in the Review Body report could be for every teacher, on top of the continued attacks on pensions.

That was followed by one of the highlights of the day, a live Skype link-up from Chicago with two members of CORE, the Caucus Of Rank-and-File Educators, explaining how they had helped rebuild the strength of the Chicago Teachers Union. By winning the support of both their members and of much of the public to determined action, they had won significant contractual gains after five days of strike action across the city. (again see www.nutlan.org.uk for an edited video of the link-up).

The final plenary session, introduced by Debs Gwynn from St.Helens, focussed on the need to build escalating national strike action to defeat the attacks on pay and pensions – and to try and co-ordinate more generalised strike action with other trade unions as well.

All the contributions to the discussion, including from delegates from Coventry, Sandwell, Lambeth, Lewisham, Birmingham, Cheshire West and Chester, West Sussex, Leicester and Warwickshire, all agreed that an urgent programme of national strike action was vital. Many also stressed how we must explain to the public how these attacks are part of a wider government strategy to cut and privatise public services and narrow the curriculum.

There were also calls to support battles against academisation at Connaught school in Waltham Forest and at Sinfin Community School in Derbyshire, where NUT members will be on strike in the last week of term (messages of support to suearg1@yahoo.com).

There was some debate as to how LANAC should relate to other groupings within the NUT, particularly the broader ‘Campaign Teacher’ initiative. Continuing the debate at the June conference, some delegates again proposed we should hold joint meetings, others that we should appeal to those supporting Campaign Teacher to come together around LANAC . It was agreed that this should be considered again at the next Steering Committee in January.

‘Unity is strength’ has always been an old adage of the movement. However, LANAC has a clear democratic structure and statement of aims, debated and agreed at our founding conference in June. For example, LANAC stands clearly as a campaign “working at every level of the NUT for the earliest possible return to collective industrial action … and for a calendar of action that can secure further concessions from this weakened Government”.

The policy of ‘Campaign Teacher’ is far less clear. The NUT Executive members present had to point out to the LANAC Conference that they could not be at all sure whether some of the other NUT Executive colleagues backing ‘Campaign Teacher’ would be voting to support an urgent call for action. Regrettably, those warnings proved to be correct.

In the light of the Executive’s failure to confirm national strike action in the first half of next term, the January 19th LANAC Steering Committee in Coventry will need to consider what meetings LANAC organises, either with or without other groupings in the Union, both up to and at the 2013 NUT Annual Conference in Liverpool. We also agreed to consider preferred prioritisation of motions going to that Annual Conference.

However, the key work of LANAC will continue to be to lobby and organise at all levels of the NUT for national strike action. Our main agenda item on January 19th will obviously be to discuss how we can urgently mobilise to oppose Gove’s attacks - and how we can lobby NUT Executive members to persuade them to launch the escalating campaign of national action called for by LANAC.

If the NUT Executive can’t act boldly to give confidence to its members to fight, then NUT members will need to act boldly to give confidence to its Executive.

Gove goes to war - we have to engage in battle !

In the summary of the Review Body's shameful proposals that I posted soon after these attacks on teachers' pay were announced, I declared that Gove was going to war with teachers. 

Today's papers suggest that's exactly what Gove thinks too - see, for example: http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/Education/article1173083.ece

When this Government came our for our pensions, shamefully, after two solid national strikes, most of the trade union movement retreated. That hesitation only invited these further attacks on our pay. (For details, see the presentation I gave to the LANAC Conference yesterday on http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/286 )
 
This time, we have to engage in battle, not retreat and invite more attacks. That's why I hope that when we meet next Thursday, NUT Executive colleagues will vote with me for a programme of dates for strike action in January and beyond - a programme not just intended to protest, but to defeat these attacks.

We need to make sure that teachers go off to the Xmas break knowing that we are gearing up for decisive action in the New Year. If we let these 'pay-by-performance' attacks succeed, then teaching will become a completely demoralised and divided profession. We cannot let it happen.

Our action campaign has to be combined with a clear public campaign to explain to the public why these attacks will damage education and why parents and teachers need to fight together against Gove's attempts to divide and dismantle locally accountable comprehensive education.

We have to point out, as an article on the BBC website does today  (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-18074402), that international research debunks all of Gove's claims, showing that "there is no clear link between performance pay for teachers and raising standards in schools" and that "performance pay raises many difficult questions" such as "how is performance to be reliably and fairly measured? How can an individual teacher's impact be separated from the contribution of other staff?"

But of course, Gove won't be dissuaded by research and logical arguments. His is an ideological war to drive down the costs of education to make it more attractive to his privatising friends who want to run public services for their own personal gain.  

What is needed is firm strike action. Gove knows that's what can defeat his plans - which is why the Sunday Times says he is discussing how to legally challenge our action. But our action will be entirely legal and entirely justified. It will be action to defend both teachers and education as a whole.
 
As we found during the 2011 pension strikes, trade union action against this increasingly hated Government will win public support. As the Chicago Teachers' Union also found this year, even in the face of vicious press attacks, parental support can be won to bold strike action (see video from yesterday's LANAC Conference on http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/287 ).

If you agree that we need to set dates for national action, make sure you tell your NUT Executive member before the National Executive meets on Thursday !

LANAC Conference - building for action - and building international links

50 teachers from across the country met in Leicester today for a conference organised by the Local Associations National Action Campaign.

The meeting heard from reps that have been key to escalating action to strike action to defend conditions as part of the 'Phase One' action. But, with Gove demanding all pay rises are linked to performance, everyone agreed we now need 'Phase Two' !

The Conference called for next week's National Executive to set dates for escalating national action to oppose Gove's attack on pay - as well as the ongoing attacks on pensions.

The presentations given to the Conference are posted here: 

http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/286

There was also a live link-up with members of the Chicago Teachers' Union, with an edited video posted here: 

http://youtu.be/MUGYYj9pfpA

LET’S SET THE DATES FOR NATIONAL STRIKE ACTION !

Happy Xmas ?  Gove & Osborne want more cuts !

Time for a New Year's Resolution:  LET’S SET THE DATES FOR  NATIONAL STRIKE ACTION !

TEACHERS ARE STARTING TO LOOK FORWARD to the end of another tough term but, be warned,  these ConDems have a nasty set of “Christmas presents” ready for us.

The DfE has already announced the next hike in pensions contributions to be taken from our pay in April 2013. For the privilege of retiring older for less, they expect teachers to lose a further slice from their pay.

It was no secret that another rise was coming but the cut for teachers at the top of the pay spine is even worse than expected. A teacher on UPS3 in Inner London will see 10.1% of their salary taken out for pensions. That will be nearly £140 lost a month in pension increases  - with the 2014 rise still to come.

Chancellor Osborne will be making his next “budget statement” this month. He is likely to announce that, because the cuts medicine hasn’t been working, the solution has to be yet more cuts to pay, jobs,  conditions and public services !

It means more misery for many of the families of the students we teach. It also means more attacks on fellow trade unionists - but also more looking to take action alongside us too!

The worst threat to teachers is  likely to be wrapped up in Michael Gove’s impending response to the ‘Review Body’ report on School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions.

Gove may well seize his chance to let loose a performance pay free-for-all in schools so that headteachers can pick and choose which of their teachers go up the pay scale - whether on the main spine or UPS. Others could have their pay frozen or, for the first time, might even face being pulled down the pay spine.

Ofsted, observations and imposed progress targets are already being used to unfairly trash teachers. Now they want to be able to cut our pay to try to cower staff and divide-and-rule in schools even more than now.

There’s only one response we can make - to stand firm together against the Government bullies! That’s what many school groups have already been doing this term by implementing the ‘Phase One’ guidelines. 

Local action has helped win important local victories - but it won’t be enough to stop the national attacks on pensions and pay. For that, we need a programme of national strike action - and soon !

Join the debate next weekend at:

LANAC’s Second National Delegate Conference:

Winning on Pensions, Pay and Workload

‘Phase One’ Action: Successes, Lessons, Challenges
Moving to ‘Phase Two’: Setting the dates for national strike action

Reports from around the country including from Steve Charles, rep at Stratford Academy.

• How can LANAC meet its aims – to ‘spread success’ and ‘develop confident organisation in the workplace’ ?
• How can we mobilise to secure the Network’s aims of ‘an escalating program of national action’ ?
• Can we wait for the NASUWT – or is it now time for the NUT to take national strike action without them ?

Saturday December 8th, 11.00 - 15.30
at Leicester Adult Education College, Leicester LE1 6HL

Stratford Academy Concerned Parents Press Release

PRESS RELEASE (29/11/12)

STRATFORD ACADEMY CONCERNED PARENTS

TEACHERS SUSPEND FURTHER STRIKE ACTION

After nine days of strikes, teachers at Stratford Academy, Newham, have suspended further strike action. Following talks facilitated by ACAS, on Tuesday 27 November, the NUT and NASUWT teachers’ unions and Stratford Academy management agreed a joint press release: “Following constructive talks facilitated by ACAS, all sides have agreed to a process of further discussions to deal with outstanding issues.” The teachers will be reintroducing their unions’ joint national action (short of strike action) measures in opposition to excessive workloads.

It was the Academy management's outrageous demand that staff must individually promise not to take part in their unions’ joint action that provoked the strike in the first place. Staff who refused to repudiate their unions’ campaign had their wages cut by 15%, with further threats of monthly pay cuts. Nearly half a million teachers, in 23,000 schools, are taking part in the unions’ actions but only Stratford Academy management decided to take punitive action against teachers. Faced with this, teachers took strike action on 25 October, followed by eight more days of strikes, over the next three weeks.

We hope that the final outcome of negotiations will confirm an important victory for the teachers. This would also be a tremendous result for parents and pupils! Our children can then return to school full time and our teachers can return to teaching unbowed and confident they have the full support of parents.

The 'Stratford Academy Concerned Parents' group was formed after parents’ views were completed ignored by the Head and Governors. We organised mass leafleting to bring the real facts about the strike to parents and the local community. We held our own packed meetings of parents where it was unanimously decided to condemn the actions of the Head and Governors and to call on senior management to negotiate with teachers, to allow our children to return full time to school.

Under our continuous pressure, eventually the Head Teacher was compelled to call a “meeting of parents” on 20 November. Two hundred parents attended and loudly condemned the confrontational and reckless actions of school management that led to the teachers’ strike. Last Friday, 23 November, a delegation of Concerned Parents met with senior management and presented a motion of ‘no confidence’ to the Head.

Within days, the combined pressure from teachers and parents forced the Head and Governors (the Employers) to negotiate with teachers’ unions.

Areas of concern for parents remain

While teachers’ continue to negotiate over their issues, areas of concern for parents remain, in particular the heavy-handed management culture. But parents have found their voices! Stratford Academy Concerned Parents will continue to campaign for real representation and accountability. We will work to be represented by parent-governors that actually reflect our views on the Board.

We are confident that our example of firm parents and teachers’ unity in the face of bullying senior management will give encouragement to staff and parents in other schools facing similar problems with management.

The experience at Stratford Academy also serves as a warning to staff and parents at other schools where attempts are being made by senior management to turn them into academies about the sort of regime that might await them. Many parents at Stratford now question the rapid process and minimum so-called “consultation” that led to Stratford becoming an Academy in 2011.

We will endeavour to ensure the magnificent struggle at Stratford Academy is widely known at schools across the country!

Niall Mulholland
Stratford Academy Concerned Parents

For more details and interviews etc, please contact Niall Mulholland,
Stratford Academy Concerned Parents at:

stratfordacademyparents@gmail.com

LANAC Conference on Dec 8 - we need national action !

After a year without national strike action - and growing threats to our pensions, pay and conditions, how do teachers now rebuild the action needed to defeat these attacks?

That's the debate that will be taking place at:

LANAC’s Second National Delegate Conference:
Winning on Pensions, Pay and Workload
Saturday December 8th, 11.00 - 15.30
at Leicester Adult Education College, Leicester LE1 6HL

To confirm attendance: Contact Martin Powell-Davies, LANAC Convenor,  
E-mail: NUT@lewisham.gov.uk Cheques for £5 Conference fee to ‘LANAC’ and sent to LANAC Conference c/o NUT Office, Town Hall, Catford, London SE6 4RU.

Here is the final agenda:
 
10.30-11.00am: Registration

11-12.15 pm: Opening Plenary: 'Phase One' Action - Successes, Lessons and Challenges
· Introduced by Julie Lyon-Taylor, Chair of LANAC
· Reports from around the regions, including from school reps where schools have won victories by threatening to escalate to strike action
· How can we carry out the Network’s aims – to ‘spread success’ and ‘develop confident organisation in the workplace’ ?
· How widely can the action be built? What are the challenges and the lessons for the Union?

12.15-1.00 pm: Lunch

1.00-2.00 pm: A choice of four workshops
a) Pensions - the latest threats - an update on where we are now with the Pensions Bill, 2013 contribution rates, the prospect of co-ordination with other unions taking action;
b) Pay - what we can expect from Gove? – Gove will soon be announcing news from the ‘Review Body’ - further attacks on pay progression, perhaps pay relegation and regional pay;
c) The threats to union organisation - the growth of academies and attacks on facilities time is opening a debate on how the NUT can best meet those challenges
d) Building rank and file organisation and getting our message out to the wider community – particularly drawing on the lessons of the successful action by Chicago teachers.

2.00-3.15 pm: Closing Plenary - Setting the dates for national strike action to win on pensions, pay and workload
· Introduced by Martin Powell-Davies, LANAC Convenor
· Reports from the workshops – setting out the serious attacks we face
· How can we mobilise across the Union to secure the Network’s aims of ‘an escalating program of national action’ ?
· Can we wait for the NASUWT – or is it now time for the NUT to act without them?

3.15-3.30 pm: Conclusion – building from today, dates for next LANAC Committee/events.

London schools build 'Phase 1' action - now for 'Phase 2' !

Last night's meeting of the London NUT Regional Council heard reports from across London where NUT groups were taking collective action to defend their workload by implementing the joint NUT/NASUWT 'Phase One' guidelines.

On the Stratford Picket Line

Pride of place has to be given to the courageous members at Stratford Academy, Newham, on strike this week for another three days - their fourth week of action. Teachers are standing firm, buoyed by the support from parents who organised a public meeting last week which was addressed by Kevin Courtney, Deputy General Secretary of the NUT, and NASUWT Deputy General Secretary Dr Patrick Roach.

The attendance sheet showed over 30 parents and family members were present and 17 parents signed up on the night to be active in the campaign. Dozens of local people and trade unionists also attended.

The meeting unanimously agreed a motion that “deplored the actions of the Head and Board of Governors that have provoked the strike by their aggressive and irresponsible actions, causing classes to be cancelled and imposing great practical difficulties on parents and pupils”. The meeting called on “the school employers to bring this dispute to an immediate end, to allow pupils to go back to a full school day and to allow teachers to teach”. The motion also demanded the Governors “immediately withdraw cuts to teachers’ pay, to allow teachers to carry out their lawful trade union actions, and to ensure that Stratford Academy is free of management bullying or threats towards teachers and all staff, and pupils and parents”.

A victory has also been achieved at Deptford Green School, Lewisham, where, after NUT and NASUWT members voted to take strike action unless an unacceptable observation regime was scrapped, management eventually withdrew their original proposals and a settlement has now been reached. It again shows what can be achieved by members standing together, backed up by the Union action guidelines.

Other reports were given including in:

• Hounslow - where primary teachers refused to continue to be subject co-ordinators without receiving additional TLR payment
• Islington - where a threat to take strike action at Mount Carmel School had also won a success over observations
• Greenwich - where members in one school had just won a clear limit on directed hours (and another has just voted by 60 votes to 1 to escalate to strike action over excessive observations !)
• Bexley - where two school groups have said they are prepared to take strike action
• Waltham Forest - where, in a separate dispute at Connaught school, members are taking sustained strike action in opposition to becoming an Academy.

But many delegates also wanted to know when the Union is moving on to 'Phase 2' and calling national strike action to oppose the national threats to pay, pensions and workload. Those debates will continue - including at the LANAC Conference in Leicester on Saturday, December 8th: http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/188

Camden NUT announced that it has called on its members to join a Lobby of the DfE on Tuesday December 4th at 5pm to protest at the latest announcements about pensions robbery that will see even more stolen from our salaries from next April (see previous post: http://electmartin1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/pensions-robbery-they-want-us-to-pay.html )
 

Stratford: Parents unite with teachers to oppose pay cuts

Parents and teachers together on the school gates

The courageous campaign of action by members of the NUT and NASUWT unions at Stratford Academy in Newham escalated to two strike days last week - and will step-up further to three days of action from Tuesday 13th November to Thursday 15th November next week.

The dispute was provoked by the bullying actions of the Academy management who, behaving as if they were running a dictatorship where trade unions are outlawed, insisted that teachers individually promise that they would not take part in the national action-short-of-strike-action jointly launched by the two teaching unions. All teachers refusing to 'repent', and stick with their union's national campaign to defend working conditions, then started to have 15% docked from their pay!

The only response to such anti-union intimidation was to escalate to strike action. Bravely, teachers at the Academy have done exactly that.

This week's two-day action has seen the strike grow stronger. On the picket line on Thursday, staff from other unions in the school expressed their support - and some suggested they would be transferring to the NUT to join the action. As well as myself from the NUT Executive, members of the Newham NUT Committee and, significantly, a local parent, Niall Mulholland, all came along to express support.

Niall, along with other concerned parents, has called a public meeting in the Clapton FC Clubhouse, close to the school in Upton Lane, on Thursday 15th at 6.30 pm. As their leaflet explains: "Parents feel they have been left in the dark. They want to know: Why are Stratford teachers on strike? Why have Governors cut teachers’ pay by 15%? Is it true that teachers face bullying and intimidation from management? What does Academy status mean for pupils, staff and parents?"

The NUT National Executive meeting this week congratulated the Stratford teachers for their determined action. Their stand is not only about defending their own rights and conditions, it's also about upholding staff morale and defending the learning conditions for pupils, as well as making clear to other anti-union Heads that union members are prepared to stand together when threatened with pay deductions.

Keep sending in your messages of support to NUT rep, Steve Charles, on SteveC4151@aol.com

Teachers' strike at Stratford Academy

"It's like being run by the Stasi in this school", a striker commented, as teachers at Stratford Academy, Newham, went on strike on Thursday 25 October.

The industrial action is over a pay cut imposed by school governors, and against a bullying school management.

The governors' punitive salary reductions were made after these east London teachers began a work-to-rule, as part of national action by the NUT and NASUWT teachers' unions.

Following a lawful national ballot, teachers are refusing to undertake tasks that distract them from the core role of teaching and which do not require their skills as qualified teachers.

The NUT rep Steve Charles explained that not only has teachers' pay been cut but that staff are subjected to threatening and intimidating actions by governors and school management.

A letter from management went to teachers demanding they agree not to take part in the NUT and NASUWT national action, which stops short of a strike, or else have their pay cut.

Those teachers who refused to be bullied into submission had their pay cut by 15%. In response, the NUT and NASUWT unions, which represent the majority of staff, issued notice of a strike, demanding the punitive wage cuts are withdrawn and the intimidation stops.

Niall Mulholland, a parent of a Year 8 pupil at Stratford Academy, and a local Socialist Party member, joined the picket line. "Teachers at Stratford Academy work very hard and professionally, despite dilapidated school buildings and the school being in one of the country's poorest boroughs.

"The teachers have been forced into strike action by the outrageous, autocratic actions of the governors and senior school management.

"It is they who are entirely responsible for any disruption to pupils and parents. I and other parents will do all we can to support the teachers' completely justified action.

"We will campaign to try to ensure that all parents are fully aware of the real issues in this dispute and the teachers' justified case, not just the management propaganda.

"We want to meet the governors without delay, to demand that they immediately end their pay cuts and anti-union intimidation."

NUT rep Steve Charles said that parents' support is valuable in the dispute and for the future of the school and its students.

More strike action is planned by the teachers; two days in the week after half-term and three days after that if their demands are not met.

The Stratford Academy teachers' action is significant for all staff in academies and throughout the education system.

If the Stratford governors and management get away with their attacks, it will encourage similar action by management in other schools.

This article was taken from the Socialist Party website:  http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/740/15583/26-10-2012/teachers-at-stratford-academy-strike-against-scandalous-pay-cuts

Please send messages of support to Stratford Academy NUT rep Steve Charles at stevec4151@aol.com

Schools escalating to strike action - send your support

ACTION SHORT OF STRIKE ACTION is already achieving successes and boosting members' confidence. Victories are being won at school level and some of the worst workload practices knocked back.

But if action short of strike action doesn’t persuade schools to think again, then the NUT has made clear that school strike requests are likely to be supported - and that strikes will be financially sustained by the union as well.

The action is part of our national dispute with Gove, so school groups don’t have to be formally balloted again. National unions just have to give a minimum of seven days notice of the start of strike action. A victory over the withdrawal of a threatened 'mock inspection' was won in a Tower Hamlets school after notice was given - without needing to strike.

As explained in an earlier post on this blog, http://electmartin1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/teachers-vote-to-escalate-to-strike.html, NUT and NASUWT members at Deptford Green School in Lewisham have voted overwhelmingly to take strike action if their Head refuses to withdraw plans that could mean eight or more classroom observations a year.

Staff in an Academy in Buckinghamshire and at Stratford Academy in Newham have also voted for strike action in response to threats to dock their pay if they stick to the union action guidelines.

Incredibly, at Stratford, staff were told that they had to inform management individually that they were not going to participate in action short of strike action - any staff who did not do so were told they would be deducted 15% of their pay!

To this serious threat, the NUT has given a serious response and served notice that members will strike for one day next week, (Thursday 25th October), two days in the week after half term (Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th November) and three days the week after that. The action will go ahead if the management does not withdraw its threats to deduct pay.
 
It's a big step for teachers in all these schools to have to take - but it is the right one. The only way we can stand up to such bullying is by threatening to escalate our action to strike action. 

But members in these schools need to know that, if they strike, they have the support of NUT members around the country. So keep sending in your messages of support to the NUT reps at:

Academy in Bucks: Chris Butcher
kiwichrisbutcher@googlemail.com

Stratford Academy: Steve Charles
stevec4151@aol.com

Deptford Green: Karen Wheeler  
karen_wheeler@hotmail.co.uk

Teachers vote to escalate to strike action over excessive observations

For over a year, there has been an ongoing concern over excessive observations at a Lewisham secondary school. Even worse, those observation outcomes are then linked to a system where teachers are placed in groups according to Ofsted categories. These can, and have been, then linked to harsh capability procedures.

Following the announcement of our action short of strike action, the school NUT rep sought discussions with the Headteacher, seeking changes to procedures to meet the NUT/NASUWT check-lists.

Unfortunately, the Headteacher has said that the profiling system will continue with staff being allocated into the categories of Satisfactory; Satisfactory to Good; Good; and Good to Outstanding (now downgraded from 'outstanding' which is no longer listed as a category !)

Staff would be observed too often, without adequate notice, nor with agreement over the lesson to be seen – only being given a ‘window’ of 6 periods:
• Each observation period will include 2 lesson observations over a 6 period 'window'
• Each teacher receives 48 hours notice of their 6 period window
• A teacher deemed “Satisfactory to Good” would receive 4 observation periods over the next four half-terms – i.e eight observations. ‘Satisfactory’ and ‘inadequate’ teachers may receive even more.

A joint NUT/NASUWT meeting this evening agreed that these arrangements were unacceptable as they
• were in clear breach of the NUT/NASUWT Joint Classroom Observation Protocol
• focus on Ofsted categories rather than performance management objectives
• fail to provide genuine professional development and support to teachers

Following discussion, the meeting of 39 NUT members and 10 NASUWT members voted in support of proceeding to escalate to strike action. A secret paper ballot was issued to NUT members asking if they would support strike action if called upon by the National Union. The votes were 38 YES, 1 abstention, 0 NO. NASUWT members met as a sub-group and agreed to support the NUT’s decision.

The meeting agreed with a proposal that we urgently seek a meeting with the Head and Chair of Governors to seek urgent negotiation over an acceptable appraisal and observation procedure but that, if there was a refusal to meet before the half-term break, we would ask that the NUT and NASUWT issue a notice for strike action.

Look out for further updates on this story

Report from the October NUT Executive meeting

‘PHASE ONE’ NON-STRIKE ACTION ALREADY WINNING VICTORIES
 
Even while the National Executive was meeting, reports were coming in of new victories being won over workload, appraisal and observations.  These gains were being achieved by NUT members making clear to Heads that they will be sticking together and implementing the joint action guidelines.

One Lewisham reps texted me to say that a planned ‘learning walk’ had been cancelled after the NUT group had objected as it would exceed our limits on annual observations. Another reported that they had secured a calendar of one meeting a week - and that included TLR holders.
 
Similar success stories were reported from right around the country - more are reported on http://classroomteachers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/action-wins-victories.html
 
WE'RE READY TO ESCALATE TO LOCAL STRIKE ACTION TOO

It was also made clear that the NUT is ready to support requests from school groups to escalate to strike action - with strike pay - where Heads are refusing to reach agreement with NUT members over key issues like observations. 

NUT Division Secretaries should contact their NUT Regional Office and/or NUT Executive members to start the fast-track process to consider requests for strike action. If there is clear support for action, the NUT can quickly issue a notice sanctioning strike action - and without the need for an additional strike ballot. For example, action may soon be called in a Tower Hamlets school in a dispute over a threatened 'mocksted' inspection.

We also ratified the NUT's model contract setting out the 35 hour working week that we are fighting for, in place of our existing open-ended contracts. This would limit overall weekly working-hours to:

• a maximum 20 hours of pupil contact time
• at least 5 hours of non-contact time for planning, preparation and assessment
• no more than 5 hours for non-contact duties such as breaktimes and meetings
• 5 further hours of PPA time outside 'directed time'

EXECUTIVE VOTES TO FIRM UP PLANS FOR JOINT NATIONAL STRIKE ACTION TOO 
 
October’s meeting of the National Executive unanimously voted to build on the policy agreed at the TUC’s national Congress to support co-ordinated national strike action to defend pay, pensions and jobs.

Christine Blower will now be writing to other unions to “explore the  practicalities of a co-ordinated  programme of strike action”.

The motion also called on NUT negotiators to firm up and clarify with the NASUWT how we can build from ‘action short of strike action’ to set dates for a programme of  national strike action. Such a programme of strike action will be vital given the further attacks that could soon be coming - on top of those we already face.

The Public Service Pensions Bill will receive its second reading on 22 October. It will legally force pension ages in the teachers’ scheme to be the same as the state pension age - which will be rising to 68 or more.
 
The Government will also soon be announcing the pay cuts we can expect to get next April when our pension contributions are put up again - and then again in 2014.

Later this term, we also expect to hear what the School Teachers Review Body has to say about our pay arrangements. As the Executive motion noted, this could include “serious reductions in the ability to move up the pay spine and even the possibility of headteachers reducing the pay of teachers”.

The full wording of the motion is in a previous post but the action points at the end of the motion - which I helped to draft - were as follows:
“ 1. The NUT negotiating team should urgently meet with the NASUWT to explain that the NUT believes that it is now time to discuss the circumstances in which joint strike action will be called and to consider when we set dates to commence a programme of  national strike action;
2. The General Secretary writes to other TUC affiliates, particularly those in the TUCG, to explore the practicalities of a co-ordinated programme of strike action on   pay, pensions and jobs.
3. The General Secretary and negotiating team will report on progress to the November meeting of the NUT National Executive”.


NOW LET’S MOBILISE TRADE UNIONISTS TO MARCH ON OCTOBER 20

NUT members shouldn’t leave these cross-union discussions just to take place amongst the union tops. Talk to NASUWT colleagues in your school - and members of other teaching and support staff unions as well. 

 
 


Millions have been marching aginst austerity right across Europe. Now we need to turnout in our hundreds of thousands here in Britain too!

Bring your family and friends to the TUC march in London on Saturday October 20 - and ask everyone you meet on the demo to call for joint co-ordinated strike action too!

NUT Executive seeks to build co-ordinated action

At this afternoon’s meeting of the NUT National Executive, a motion was unanimously agreed that started to build on the motions passed at TUC Congress supporting co-ordinated national strike action.

The NUT agreed to write to other TUC affiliates to explore the practicalities of building joint action on pay, pensions and jobs.

The motion also called on NUT negotiators to firm up and clarify with the NASUWT how we can build from the action short of strike action that both the NUT and NASUWT are engaged in at present, and start to set dates for a programme of national strike action. This will be vital given the serious further attacks that could soon be coming – on top of the attacks we already face – from the Public Service Pensions Bill and from the attacks on pay likely to be included in the report to soon be issued by the School Teachers’ Review Body. 

No specific proposed dates for action were agreed, but progress on these discussions will be reported to the next meeting of the NUT Executive in early November.

The full text of the motion is as follows:

The executive welcomes the positive news about the implementation of action short strike action and the positive engagement from many school reps. We believe that this shows the benefits of the two largest teachers unions working together.

We call on the Secretary of State to meet and resolve the disputes with both unions. Failing that the executive agrees to do all in its power to advance the action and looks forward to the joint meetings in the regions with NASUWT executive members.

The Executive notes that the threat represented by the pensions bill which will receive its second reading on 22 October and continues to believe that teachers should not have to work to 68 or pay increased contributions for a pension scheme that has still not had the valuation done.

We further note the serious threats to teacher pay arrangements, which may for example result in serious reductions in the ability to move up the pay spine and even the possibility of headteachers reducing the pay of teachers, represented by the secretary of state’s remit and evidence to the STRB.

The Executive expresses its willingness to work seriously with the NASUWT to build the confidence of the members of both unions for further phases of our campaign including an escalation to a programme of strike action in order to defend teachers against these threats and recognises that this escalation will be needed if we are to prevent these attacks on teachers.

Given these serious and imminent threats to pensions and pay, and noting:
• the success of the non-strike action in boosting confidence and union activity
• the strong support achieved in the latest NUT ballots for both non-strike and strike action
• the decision of the TUC to support coordinated strike action against cuts in pensions, pay and jobs,
the NUT Executive resolves that:

1. The NUT negotiating team should urgently meet with the NASUWT to explain that the NUT believes that it is now time to discuss the circumstances in which joint strike action will be called and to consider when we set dates to commence a programme of national strike action;

2. The GS writes to other TUC affiliates, particularly those in the TUCG, to explore the practicalities of a co-ordinated programme of strike action on pay, pensions and jobs.

3. The GS and negotiating team will report on progress to the November Executive.