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

Solidarity with Egyptian activists

Sent today to the Egyptian Embassy, London 

For the immediate release of Ramy Sabry and all arrested activists 

I am writing as a National Executive member of the National Union of Teachers in London, the largest teaching union in Europe. 

I am horrified to hear news of the organised killing of the leftist journalist Al Housseini Abou Dayf, and the kidnapping and torturing of activists by members of the Muslim Brotherhood during the mass protests against President Mursi’s new constitution. Firstly, I am calling on you to ensure the immediate release of all the activists. 

I am informed via the Socialist newspaper that, among others, Ramy Sabry, a socialist activist and a fighter for workers’ rights, has been badly tortured and has been held for many hours by Muslim Brotherhood thugs despite his urgent need for medical assistance. 

I have also heard that Ramy, along with other activists, is going to be handed over in the next few hours and transferred to the police, who refused to act to stop their kidnapping and who refused to interfere to enforce their release. 

I demand the immediate release of Ramy Sabry and all the other activists and will do whatever I can to make sure that these attacks on democratic rights and the right to organise as socialists and trade unionists are brought widely to the attention of members of my Union.

Martin Powell-Davies, Member of the NUT National Executive for Inner London, U.K

For further information, see: http://www.socialistworld.net/view/90
 

Gove goes to war on teachers' pay

... we have to respond by urgently setting dates for escalating national strike action !

The attack on teachers' pay unleashed by Gove today in his response to the Schoolteachers' Review Body Report is a declaration of war on teachers and teaching unions. 

In the face of this attack, there can be no place for hesitation. We have to urgently announce a program of escalating national strike action in defence of teachers' pay - and call on other trade unionists and parents to support us in a battle to defend education from a Government intent on destroying teacher morale and on ruling schools by fear and intimidation.

The main attacks include:

• No automatic annual increase for teachers on the main pay scale. Instead, pay progression would depend on annual appraisal decisions.This leaves mainscale teachers open to the same kind of harsh, arbitrary and discriminatory decisions that have already led to increasing numbers of teachers on the upper pay scale being denied pay increases by bullying managers and cash-strapped schools.
• Spine points on the main pay scale would continue to be published but only 'for reference purposes'. "This would enable schools to award progression increases as they judge appropriate in the circumstances, for example, awarding more or less than a whole point." 
• Complete dismantling of the upper pay scale so that teachers could be placed anywhere on an upper pay band with the "amount and timing of any progression [to] be at the school’s discretion". In short, even where pay progression is granted, the increases will be individualised, allowing unscrupulous mangers to divide-and-rule between staff, awarding favourites and punishing those whose faces do not fit.
  
• Making progression to the upper pay scale dependent on a teacher showing "the potential and commitment to undertake professional duties which make a wider contribution beyond their own classroom" In other words, making progression to the upper spine dependent on a teacher accepting that they will have to take on more responsibilities. The new introduction of 'temporary' TLRs indicates that separate payments for additional responsibilities could soon start to be replaced simply by a expectation that UPS teachers do the work without extra payment.
• Changing the law so that the salary for your spine point would no longer be guaranteed if you moved to a new school.  Instead, you could be moved back to the bottom of your pay scale. In other words, Gove wants the 'market' to be used to enforce pay cuts as teachers are forced to compete for posts by offering to be paid less than their colleagues.
• "Overall school budgets will provide some constraint but it will be essential that leadership teams make robust and well-evidenced recommendations and that governing bodies hold head teachers to account for effective use of the pay budget"
• "Ofsted’s new inspection framework should help encourage a clear focus on the relationship between pay progression decisions and quality of teaching in a school.  In other words, the pressure on school budgets will force many schools into holding back pay. Even if some favoured individuals are rewarded, it will be at the expense of their colleagues, destroying the morale and staff relationships that are vital for any school to properly function. If schools resist Gove's 'invitation' to atomise pay, Gove will use the threat of Ofsted to bully schools into line.
• On paper, the pay freeze would be replaced with a tiny 1% uplift in the top and bottom of the pay spines in 2013 and 2014. But "schools are free to determine the extent of pay uplifts to teachers within the statutory minima and maxima". In other words, for most teachers, schools can still decide to maintain the pay freeze !

For a powerpoint setting out these attacks, see the presentation I have uploaded to the Local Associations National Action Campaign website: http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/286

Gove's response also makes clear that these attacks are just the start. He wants a "second stage of reform" to follow - which, if he thought he could get away with it,  would be the complete deregulation and individualisation of pay. We have to show Gove that we're not going to accept these attacks, let alone his plans to "further simplify the classroom teacher scale".

The leaders of the three main teacher unions have rightly reacted angrily:

Mary Bousted of the ATL said: "Michael Gove has shown his total disregard for teachers in pushing through a permanent pay freeze for most of them. Hard-up schools will undoubtedly decide to deny pay rises to teachers, to help balance their budgets now they won't have to implement any pay recommendations".

Chris Keates of the NASUWT said "These proposals place virtually unlimited discretion on teachers' pay in the hands of head teachers at a time when unfairness and discrimination are already rife".

Christine Blower of the NUT said: “This decision comes in the same week as Government figures showing that the number of teachers leaving English state schools rose by almost a fifth in one year. It is children who will suffer when the profession is unable to recruit and retain teachers. All research shows that performance related pay does not motivate people. It will be bad for teachers and bad for children. Individualised pay will lead to unfairness and injustice".

But this united anger needs to be matched with united action. 

Correctly, the NUT press release went on to say that:

“Our members will not see this as anything other than a further attack on their pay and conditions. Pay and pensions are at the heart of the current disputes with the Secretary of State. Together with the NASUWT, we represent nine out of ten teachers who will be appalled by these proposals, coming as they do on top of pension contribution increases. We will be meeting with them next week to discuss the way forward.”

Those talks need to result in an immediate decision to call an urgent joint national strike, as the first day in an escalating programme of action. The tactic being successfully used in individual school battles as part of the 'Phase One' action campaign - of announcing a program of escalating strike dates, including two and three day strikes, must now be applied to a national programme of action. 

The NUT National Executive meets on Thursday December13. Calls need to urgently come in from school groups calling on the Executive to take that stand.

Calderdale NUT have already circulated the model motion in the box below. This, and similar proposals, will no doubt be discussed at the LANAC Conference in Leicester on Saturday: http://www.nutlan.org.uk/?q=node/239

Model Resolution: The NUT group of (insert name and workplace) condemns the proposals of the STRB report and calls upon the NUT National Executive to support a proposal for escalating national strike action commencing as early as possible in the spring term. This action should be called in conjunction with other teacher trade unions but should not be dependent on their support.

Backed up by the policy agreed by TUC Congress, teaching unions should also look to co-ordinate strikes with other unions looking to take action next year such as the PCS who have just announced a new national ballot for national action over jobs, pay and pensions.

Michael Gove may have made a major miscalculation. He has assumed that the failure of the NUT and NASUWT to take further national action over pensions means that teachers are not up for a fight. But Gove has misjudged the huge anger and bitterness amongst classroom teachers about the constant denigration of the profession, about the unbearable bullying and workload, about the way Ofsted inspections, exam results and classroom observations are already being used to unfairly judge teachers and schools. 

If a clear lead is given and a clear plan of action spelt out, then teachers will respond overwhelmingly to a call to national strike action.

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

Stratford Academy: parents and teachers united

Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/744/15767

Taken from The Socialist newspaper, 28 November 2012

Stratford Academy: Parents and teachers united against bullying management

After striking for nine days over four separate weeks, teachers at Stratford Academy, east London, have been able to suspend their strike action pending the outcome of negotiations with senior management. 

The head teacher and school governors were rocked by the combined pressure of striking teachers and parents who are in open revolt against the aggressive actions of the school's senior management. 

The Socialist spoke to Niall Mulholland, who helped initiate Stratford Academy Concerned Parents.

" The head, Andrew Seager, tried to use 'divide and rule' tactics between teachers and parents to defeat the strike. But this was thwarted once parents knew the real reasons for the dispute - an oppressive management that cut teachers' pay for following national union action short-of-a-strike. 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.

On the first day of strike action, 25 October, I went to the teachers' picket line to offer solidarity and support from the local Socialist Party branch and also as a parent of a Year 8 pupil at Stratford. I soon heard examples of years of heavy-handed, oppressive senior management, backed by supine governors. This only got worse when Stratford was turned into an academy, with minimum 'consultation', in 2011.
 
Parents tried to meet with the governors. We were ignored. So we called our own parents' meeting and invited teachers' unions and governors to speak. We advertised the meeting by leafleting neighbouring streets around Stratford Academy, holding street stalls, asking local shops to display posters on their windows, which most did eagerly, and going to the local press.

We held a packed meeting on 16 November. The NUT and NASUWT sent representatives but the governors did not show up. Parents were able to get past the misinformation put out by Seager and find out the truth about the strike. While half a million teachers in 23,000 schools are taking action short-of-a-strike, only senior management at Stratford have decided to take punitive action against teachers, provoking a strike.

We set up 'Stratford Academy Concerned Parents' and the meeting unanimously agreed a motion demanding senior management stop cutting teachers' pay, let the teachers carry out union activities and end the oppressive management culture.

This rattled Seager who called his own 'meeting for parents' on 21 November. We and the teachers' unions leafleted the 150-200 parents who turned up. After 20 minutes listening to the head justify provoking a strike by his insistence on enforcing "non-negotiables" on teachers, the mood of parents was extremely restless.

I and other parents, like Lois Austin and Caroline McGrath, stood up and demanded that we have our say. We put the blame for the strike firmly on senior management and the governors. This ignited the room. Many parents angrily called for the few governors present to justify their actions. Seager lost control of the meeting. Lois Austin moved a vote, calling for the governors to call an emergency meeting and to rescind the teachers' pay cuts, which got an overwhelming majority in support.

This gave confidence to the striking teachers. Up to then, only a handful of teachers were on picket duty, largely due to fear of management reprisals. But the day after Seager's meeting blew up in his face, 40 teachers joined the picket line. The fear of management tyranny fell away.

Another Stratford Academy Concerned Parents meeting was held on Thursday 22 November, with an even bigger turnout of parents and many young teachers. The next day, Seager suddenly invited us to meet with him and other senior staff. We brought to the meeting another motion, passed unanimously, which found 'no confidence' in the head.

Seager and senior staff were on the back foot. We got them to agree that all pupils who did not attend the few 'classes' that took place on strike days would not be marked as having taken 'unauthorised absences'.

The parents have also found their voices. They demand real representation and accountability and will fight to have genuine parent-governors on the board of governors.

Stratford Academy Concerned Parents will continue to campaign, along with teachers, for all these aims." 

Teachers have also been taking strike action at Connaught School for Girls in Waltham Forest, which is threatened with becoming an academy, and students have also been campaigning against the plans. A petition has been passed around and now has hundreds of signatures. Despite intimidation from the head teacher, some students are discussing what more they can do to support their teachers.

Thousands march to defend NHS in Lewisham

Over ten thousand demonstrators marched thorough a rainy Lewisham this afternoon in a tremendous display of community opposition to the plans to close the A&E and other services at Lewisham Hospital.

The chants of "We won't die for the PFI" summed up what these cuts are all about - protecting the PFI contractors' profits at the expense of public health and healthworkers' livelihoods. See short video: http://youtu.be/Wd-dJT1wyBo

NUT members helped boost the numbers after an email was sent to teachers working right across South-East London to call on them to support the demonstration.

In a meeting after the demo inside Lewisham Hospital I had a chance to congratulate the staff on their stand - and to encourage them to take the step that trade unionists have to consider when their jobs, conditions and workplace are threatened - to take strike action.

UNISON members in the mid-Yorkshire NHS have taken strike action just this week - as reported in 'the Socialist': http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/keyword/UK_Towns_and_cities/Yorkshire/15737/21-11-2012/mid-yorkshire-three-day-nhs-strike - so there is every reason for UNISON and other health unions to back action in Lewisham as well.

Taking strike action is no easy step for any worker to take, particulalrly a health worker, but today's demonstration showed how a firm stand would get firm public support. Of course, the pro-cuts politicians and press would hypocritically attack healthworkers for taking action. But far better to have hospital services restricted for a few days of determined strike, than to have them permanently lost through cuts and hospital closures ! 

Campaigners will be hoping that the many responses to the consultation opposing these NHS cuts, backed up by today's demo, will already be making the trust 'administrator' reconsider his proposals. But, if not, then strike action needs to be prepared alongside further community campaigning. 

Neither can we settle just for saving Lewisham hospital at the expense of cuts elsewhere.  This needs to be a united battle to defend NHS services right across South-East London. 

No cuts, no closures - cancel the PFI debts and defend our NHS!