It's MARCH 26 - date for NUT national strike announced

The announcement of the date of the next NUT national strike has been made - it's Wednesday March 26.

Every NUT rep and officer now needs to be spreading that news and building for a mass show of strength in opposition to Gove's damaging attacks on teachers and education. We also hope that other unions may be willing to co-ordinate with us in taking strike action on that day [UPDATE: The UCAC teachers' union in Wales has also announced that they will be calling a one-day strike on March 26th].

Let's start planning right away for reps' meetings, and members' meetings in schools to build for action. Let's channel the discontent in schools at the intolerable pressures we are under into solid strike action at the end of March. 

After the delay since the regional strikes last year, and the failure to meet the February 13 deadline originally set for action, there may be some questions from members about the Union's overall strategy. We need to make clear that this is not just a 'protest' action but must be part of an ongoing campaign of action intended to defeat the attacks on our pensions, pay and conditions.

These attacks are also attacks on education. The National Union will also be issuing model parents' leaflets so that we can get our message out to parents - via school mailings, on school-gates and on public activities.

Finally, teachers will realise that this announcement has not been made jointly with the NASUWT. Regrettably, it remains unclear as to whether they are willing to call the action required to defend teachers and education. A decision will be made when their National Executive meets on February 14. I am sure that many NASUWT colleagues will want their National Executive members to support joint action.

Let's hope that the NASUWT agree to strike with us and that their members aren't placed in the invidious position of being asked to work while their NUT colleagues are on strike.  But, whether or not the NASUWT are in action alongside us, at least the NUT has now made clear that, at last, battle is resumed! Let's make sure that March 26 is the huge show of strength needed to put the pressure back on Gove to think again.  

The new National Union parents' leaflet can be downloaded from here: http://teachers.org.uk/files/parent-leaflet-a5-4pp-9223.pdf. Here is the main text:

The Coalition Government’s policies threaten the standard of education in all our schools and colleges. Help us to persuade Michael Gove to change course.

1 Ensure every classroom has a qualified teacher

Academies and free schools are now allowed to employed unqualified teachers. This is a big threat to standards of education.

2 Allow councils to open new schools where they are needed

There is a huge pupil place shortage but councils are not allowed to open new schools. Many councils are driven to putting portacabins on school playgrounds to cope. The Government only allows new “free” schools and these are often in the wrong place.

3 Make sure changes to the curriculum and exams are positive and planned

Rushed changes are stressful for children as well as their teachers. The Government should start listening to what education experts say. They should work together with teachers to develop an exciting and inspiring curriculum that equips children for the modern world.

4 Ensure there are enough new teachers – stop picking fights with the ones we’ve got

Michael Gove keeps criticising teachers. Morale is plummeting. Five years after qualifying 2 in every 5 teachers are no longer teaching. On top of that the current system of training teachers is under-recruiting. But instead of dealing with this problem, Michael Gove keeps attacking the teachers we’ve got and they are striking to defend themselves and education.

5 Get our schools working together and fund them properly

The evidence shows that schools working together is best for all children. Financial scandals at free schools show the dangers of privatisation. On top of this fragmentation, 6th forms in schools and colleges are facing 20% cuts while £1.7 billion has been allocated to wasteful and unnecessary free schools.

Join the campaign for education! Our children, young people and school communities need your help.

Speaking up for teachers - from the 1990s to today

If you are looking for a longer video for your meetings setting out my election platform, then please view the longer video posted yesterday on: http://youtu.be/d44YEgYgHnQ

For a shorter, snappier video, showing my record of speaking up for teachers and education in the national news media - from the 1990s to today - please have a look at my latest campaign video on: http://youtu.be/oEz_elEo9ZU

Speaking up for teachers - a short YouTube campaign video

Anyone who has been to NUT Annual Conference for the last twenty-five years will have heard me speak out in support of action to defend teachers and education. Some of you will have heard me at your school or NUT Association meeting, or perhaps at a strike rally or picket-line. 

Particularly for those who haven't, I've compiled a short video explaining why I am standing in the 2014 NUT elections - in the NUT General Secretary election this June, and in my challenge to be re-elected to one of the NUT National Executive posts for Inner London in the election this March.

Have a look at the link on: http://youtu.be/d44YEgYgHnQ

You can also see other videos, including footage of Lewisham NUT's campaign against racist attacks in the 1990s and my visit to support the Gezi Park protestors in Istanbul last year on the You Tube channel link at the top of this blog  (and, if you look further on my channel,  I can also recommend the 'Les Miserables' clips as well ...!)

London shows that there is power in a Union

On the STEM6 picket-line

London's roads and buses were packed solid this morning as the 48-hour strike by the RMT and TSSA shutdown the tube network.

The press will undoubtedly try and whip-up anti-union feeling as a result of the action but I didn't hear a single complaint against the transport unions from commuters today. On the contrary, as I said when I spoke to a pre-strike rally outside Euston station last night, union action consistently gets strong public backing. Most people are suffering in some way from job insecurity, or are struggling to pay bills, seeing their services cut, or being put under pressure at work. So, when a Union stands up to oppose these attacks, they get support!

I was on a bus to get to the picket-line outside STEM6 Free School in Islington, where NUT members are also on a 48-hour strike today and tomorrow. Their dispute is simply to win the right to have their trade union recognised. It seemed that they had won that demand - until management reneged on a commitment made last week - resulting in today's action going ahead. The fact that students turned up today to find that only one single non-union teacher was teaching lessons is entirely the responsibility of management's refusal to accept a basic democratic right for their staff.

The picket-line was in good mood, boosted by the many messages of support that they had received via @TeacherROAR and from NUT Associations. They were angered by the 'dishonorable' about-turn by their management. Yet, it seemed that this was just the latest example of the STEM6 teachers finding they had been misled. 

As a physics teacher myself, I can see how these colleagues were attracted to apply to work at a Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Sixth Form, despite its Free School status. However, they then found how these schools are likely to operate. They were given contracts containing unacceptable conditions - and without even allowing the right to have a recognised union negotiate improvements on their behalf.

Of course, of all the teachers to anger, provoking a dispute with teachers in shortage STEM subjects seems to be a tactical error! Let's hope that, now NUT members have displayed their strength in action, management will recognise the error of their ways. Meanwhile, STEM6 staff will be on strike again tomorrow and some of the pickets will also be attending a strike rally at London Met Uni where UCU and UNISON members are also on strike tomorrow as part of their pay dispute.

These aren't the only local disputes brewing in London. I attended a determined meeting of NUT and NASUWT members from Harris Boys' in Dulwich last night, where staff informed union negotiators of the changes they needed to see made to the demoralising observation regime at the Academy. Negotiations are taking place today which will hopefully make sufficient progress on these issues but, if not, the teachers were clear that they were also ready to take strike action.

The NUT has already given notice for strike action next Wednesday, February 12th, at Avenue primary in Newham where governors have agreed an unacceptable local policy that includes 'half-points' on teachers' pay-scales. This could clearly be used to ration pay increases for staff. Messages of support should be sent to the school rep, Louise Cuffaro at loucuffaro@hotmail.co.uk.

At the RMT/TSSA rally outside Euston station

These local battles reflect the growing determination amongst teachers and other trade unionists to stand up against the management onslaught inspired by this Government's attacks. Now, these local struggles need linking together in co-ordinated national action. The NUT will shortly be announcing its national strike plans in March. However, as all of us who spoke from across a range of unions at the RMT/TSSA rally in Euston last night said, we also need to join those different actions together in joint action that would really hit the headlines and start to force this Government into retreat.

Striking a chord with teachers - answering Michael Gove

This morning, Lewisham NUT sent notification to NUT Associations of my intention to seek nominations to stand in the NUT General Secretary election. By this evening, my first two nominations had already been confirmed - in Greenwich and Tower Hamlets.

The unexpected nomination from Tower Hamlets had already been won at a meeting last week - but was confirmed this evening. Support from Greenwich NUT at their hustings tonight was perhaps more expected, but the heart-felt comments - and unanimous support that I received - clearly demonstrated the depth of frustration felt by many teachers at the shortcomings in the Union's existing campaign against Gove's attacks.

The TES tonight ( http://t.co/8dIMgjCxxD ) has labelled me the "Hard-Left Challenger" in this election - but those Greenwich teachers wouldn't have described themselves in any such 'political' terms. They were just angry at the conditions we are facing and the damage being inflicted on children's education and teachers' lives.

Several of the Greenwich NUT members were attending their first-ever Association meeting. It was reassuring to hear them speak up in support for the policies I am campaigning for. To his credit, beneath the predictable TES headline, Stephen Exley has produced a fair initial summary of some of those policies, and the background to the election, saying:

"It had been widely expected that Ms Blower would be unopposed in her bid to win another five-year-term. Although she was an active member of the union’s left-wing Campaign for a Democratic and Fighting Union faction before she became general secretary, Ms Blower has also proved to be a popular figure among members to the Right of the NUT’s political spectrum. But it has emerged that she will be challenged by Martin Powell-Davies, one of the most prominent figures on the Left of the union. 

... In his campaign flyer, Mr Powell-Davies says the NUT and NASUWT has “too often” tended to “hesitate” over escalating their campaign to national strike action. He has called for an “ongoing calendar of national action”, including a two-day strike, as well as a national work-to-rule to “resist any attempt to worsen conditions”. Mr Powell-Davies also calls for a doubling of the planning, preparation and assessment (PPA) allowance to 20 per cent of a teacher’s day, as well as the abolition of Ofsted, retirement for teachers at the age of 60 and guaranteed pay progression for all teachers on the main pay-scale".

Tonight's meeting wasn't the only place where my thoughts seem to have struck a chord with teachers. On Twitter,  this election stand by @MPDNUT was provoking further debate! My tweet from this morning also seemed to gather support:

This was, of course, a reply to Gove's latest ramblings this morning in praise of independent schools. Perhaps one of the best responses tonight has come from Peter Wilby in the Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/03/state-schools-independents-michael-gove

"It is sometimes hard to know whether to take Michael Gove seriously. In a speech in London on Monday, the education secretary said he was aiming to achieve a situation where, if you visit a school in England, "standards are so high all round that you should not be able to tell whether it's in the state sector or a fee-paying independent" ... So as parents visited, say, Marlborough College, they would ignore the demand for £27,420 for a year's teaching and nearly another £5,000 for boarding. They would breeze into classrooms and wouldn't notice that, for 870 pupils, Marlborough has more than 150 teachers and assistants, a ratio that, if applied to all England's 8.2 million schoolchildren, would require the teaching workforce to be tripled to roughly 1.3 million. Then they would wander the grounds and somehow fail to clock 11 rugby pitches, eight cricket squares, 14 cricket nets, 12 tennis courts, an eight-lane swimming pool and .22 rifle range, a variety of facilities which, if extended to every state school, would require (according to one calculation) 33m acres, or more than half the English countryside".

Many London schools are now so full of 'bulge class' portacabins that they hardly have a playground, let alone a rugby pitch! Unfortunately, Gove's dangerous ideology, and his planned attacks on teachers' conditions, will not be stopped simply by force of argument. A serious calendar of strike action will be needed to force Gove back - and that's a demand that has won the backing of teachers tonight.

Martin Powell-Davies confirms his stand as NUT General Secretary candidate

FOR A UNION THAT STANDS FIRM FOR TEACHERS AND EDUCATION

NOMINATE MARTIN POWELL-DAVIES FOR NUT GENERAL SECRETARY

Download from: http://goo.gl/rfSm6H

This weekend's Conference of the Local Associations National Action Campaign overwhelmingly agreed to back my stand in this summer's election for NUT General Secretary. With that backing - and indications of support from other NUT Associations not able to attend the meeting in Leicester, Lewisham NUT has agreed to formally write to all NUT Associations seeking my nomination to stand in the election.

As the letter from Lewisham NUT Officers explains: "We know that a decision to stand in the General Secretary election is not one to be taken lightly. The GS leads over 300,000 teachers. S/he will have a significant responsibility to lead the NUT for the next five years at a time when teachers will continue to face an unprecedented battle to defend their livelihoods, children’s education, and, indeed, to protect the organisation of the Union itself ... Nominations for the GS election close on 30 April and, up to now, only one candidate, Christine Blower, our existing GS, has sought nomination. Unless another candidate receives the required ten nominations, then there will be no election in June and Christine will continue in post as GS. However, Lewisham NUT believes that it would be wrong for such an important post to go uncontested at this time ... Our initial canvassing of support has received a positive response. The Local Associations National Action Campaign Conference overwhelmingly agreed to back Martin. One Association has already nominated him, with more to follow. We hope that your association can also add its nomination to the others that Martin will be receiving".

This letter can be downloaded from the Lewisham NUT website on: http://local.teachers.org.uk/templates/asset-relay.cfm?frmAssetFileID=12099 

An initial flyer from my campaign can also be downloaded via http://goo.gl/rfSm6H (see the picture at the top of this post). Here is what it says:

Our Union is at a critical stage in its battle to defend teachers and education. We face a Government that is determined to press ahead with its plans to: 

• privatise and undermine children’s education
• bully and blame through Ofsted and league tables
• cheapen costs by attacking pay and pensions
• deregulate conditions and worsen workload
• defeat the unions that could stop its attacks

Regrettably, many teachers’ harsh experience tells them that we aren’t yet winning this fight. They see:

• ever more pressure, longer hours, more teachers bullied out - or choosing to leave the profession
  more money being taken out of their salaries for a pension many can only draw in full at 68 or more
• divisive performance-pay legislation being imposed more academies and a narrowing curriculum
• the threat of further attacks on our conditions

NUT members have loyally supported their Union every time we have called action. Yet too often, when we have organised regional or national strikes, they have then seen unions hesitate about what follows next:

• London NUT took action in 2012 - nothing followed
• Regional action restarted in 2013 - then national action promised was postponed - in Nov. and in Feb.
• Teachers were told we had won talks with Gove - but no talks have taken place, no progress has been made

Now, at last, action has been called in March - action that we have to build as strongly as possible. But, this time, we mustn’t hesitate again - but stand firm.

 MY STRATEGY TO DEFEND TEACHERS:

If we are to stop Gove, we have to organise:

• An ongoing calendar of national action - not just isolated strike days
• Collections for hardship funds so all can strike
• Escalation from one to two-day action - warning Gove that more could follow
• A national work-to-rule to resist any attempt to  worsen conditions
• A public campaign to defend children’s education with leaflets, meetings, a national demonstration

YES we need to fight for Professional Unity but we can’t afford to wait if others won’t act

• Meet with NASUWT colleagues and urge they demand a return to joint action alongside the NUT
• Let’s coordinate strikes with other trade unions too

LET’S SET CLEAR OBJECTIVES !

We must enthuse members with clear demands:  

• A life outside school - we need a minimum 20% PPA in all sectors
• Retirement at 60 - not 68 or more
• No more than 1265 directed hours, 195 days
• Abolish OFSTED and league tables
• Guaranteed mainscale pay progression
• A £2,000 increase on all pay points

BOLD LEADERSHIP -  STAYING ON A TEACHER'S SALARY

Martin has been Lewisham NUT Secretary since 1993 and on the National Executive since 2010. He was a candidate in the last contested election for NUT General Secretary in 2004. Throughout that time, he has:
* Consistently built union and community campaigns 

* Defended colleagues, spoken up for teachers

* Given confidence to teachers to take action - and win victories - like the success over Lewisham pay policies

Through his casework and campaigning, and his continued classroom teaching, Martin has kept in touch with the everyday pressures on teachers. If elected GS, he pledges to remain on a teacher's salary. He would give the Union bold leadership in the struggles ahead and be a clear voice speaking up for teachers. 

Please NOMINATE MARTIN POWELL-DAVIES!

London NUT prepares for national strike action

This weekend, Local Officers from the NUT Associations representing the 55,000 NUT members across the London Region are meeting at the NUT’s Stoke Rochford meeting venue to discuss our campaigning and organising plans.

I had the opportunity to introduce the opening session on ‘Campaigning for London Teachers’, starting with the importance of building teams of trained and confident school reps in every area – teams ready to build the action we need to defend teachers.

Some of that campaigning and action will be built around local disputes, such as those reported at the London Reps Meeting last week (see http://electmartin1.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/london-nut-reps-meeting-local-victories.html). 

As I stressed from our recent experience in Lewisham, showing your strength over one issue will help make the employer think twice over further attacks. Our successes over pay and appraisal policies, where the threat of six days of co-ordinated strike action in seven schools helped win the changes we were seeking, were then followed by the Council also confirming that they weren’t pressing ahead with the plan to cut 8 weeks half-pay from our maternity provisions either! We are now considering what co-ordinated action we could take across schools over workload using the ongoing ‘action-short-of-strike-action’ instructions.

We have to show the rogue Head, the rogue Academy chain or Local Authority – and that rogue Secretary of State – that they shouldn’t take on the NUT!

In those local struggles, we’ve shown these employers that the NUT are serious – and won gains for our members. But, as yet, we have failed to do that in our national dispute over pay, pensions and conditions.

Despite us telling members that we had won talks, for the last 14 weeks, Gove has refused to meet with us. So how do we show the strength needed to put Gove in the position where he is the one that will have to back down over pay and pensions ? … where he dare not risk acting on whatever the Review Body’s report has recommended on worsening our conditions?

We know what they’d like to try – with a Tory urging last week that children are taught for 45 hours a week, 45 weeks a year. Of course, in our schools, teachers are already working well over 50 hours a week, too many ground down by bullying, observations, Ofsted, threats of capability – and now threats that they won’t get pay progression up the mainscale this  summer. 

Those conditions mean, as even Michael Wilshaw has confirmed, that 40% of teachers leave within five years of qualifying. He complains that it’s our ‘moaning’ that causes the problem, not the demoralising regime that Gove and Ofsted – whatever their present differences – both impose on schools!

Of course, it’s true that moaning alone won’t change anything – what we have to do as a Union is to harness teachers’ discontent into the collective campaigns and action that will make a difference.

That’s why last week’s NUT National Executive agreed a series of campaign actions – including lobbying and leafleting to get our message across to politicians and parents (with March 8th being agreed as a date for public activities in London) , and seeing if we can build support for a national demonstration to defend education.

Of course, to make Gove take note, above all we need national action. That’s why it was so good to be able to confirm that the NUT Executive last week did set a date for further national strike action in March – with the exact date to be announced officially next Friday.

We want those campaigns to involve all our teaching colleagues, but, if others won’t act, then we cannot wait to take the action vital to defend teachers and education. We have already waited too long.

Of course, one-day alone won’t shift Gove – and we will have to discuss and hammer out what should follow next term. However, that day will show Gove that the NUT have not gone away, and that we’re not going to let him wreck teachers’ lives, nor wreck children’s education.

After this weekend, we hope we’ve made plans that can help make sure that the strike action is as strong as possible right across London.