As UCAC pull back on M26, concerns rise about NUT decision

The decision by UCAC, the Welsh teaching Union to announce today that they will NOT be proceeding with national strike action on March 26 has raised concerns about whether there will be sufficient support for a similar decision being made when the NUT Executive meets for a Special Meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Certainly there have been other straws in the wind that have raised some alarm. A Local Associations survey asking for levels of support for the strike and a poster and a voicemail message from the NUT GS to members emphasising that the strike can be called off if Gove "negotiates seriously" have caused a level of confusion about the Union's strategy.

Worryingly, in a twitter exchange with UCAC, the prospect of 'serious negotiations' was exactly their reasoning for postponing strike action. In reply, I pointed out that calling off the strike risked throwing away the only lever that we had to make sure Gove does genuinely make concessions, rather than maintaining his insistence that talks can only be about 'implementation' of his policies.

At a nomination meeting tonight in Liverpool, I contrasted this approach with the strategy adopted by the late Bob Crow and the RMT on London Underground. After showing their strength in a solid 48 hour strike (even though ASLEF did not strike too), the prospect of a further 48 hour strike brought London Transport to the negotiating table and led the Tory press to complain that Mayor Johnson had capitulated. However, the dispute is not yet resolved.

A further postponement of action by the NUT, after a series of earlier postponements of national action,  would not show strength but weakness. Gove would feel no pressure to concede on anything significant. NUT members would feel confused and active reps demoralised.

Let's hope that those fears are unfounded and that, unless there are very concrete promises of clear concessions - not just 'talks'  - tomorrow's NUT Executive confirms the plan for the strike so that the whole Union can then go all out to build the kind of solid action that can make Gove think again.

The well-attended Liverpool meeting voted unanimously for a motion calling on the NUT Executive to confirm that, without real concessions, the strike should proceed on March 26 and, further, as the RMT did, the Union should announce further action to follow so that we demonstrate the seriousness of our determination to force Gove back.

The discussion also highlighted the need for the Union to mobilise around clear demands so that teachers know what we are trying to achieve - a point that I have emphasised in my campaign to win nominations to stand as a candidate in June's election for NUT General Secretary.

The meeting also unanimously voted to support my nomination which, once some other nominations are confirmed, should mean that I have at least now reached the minimum threshold of ten nominations required to trigger a contested election in June.

Bob Crow - a leader who stood firm

Bob Crow speaking before TUC 2013

Today's sad news of Bob Crow's sudden passing has shocked and saddened trade unionists from across our movement. 

Bob's determined stand in support of RMT members marked him out as a trade union leader who was prepared to lead from the front, and to win victories through collective action. 

He was also a great supporter of co-ordinated trade union struggle, supporting the National Shop Stewards Network, on whose platform I had the privilege to speak next to Bob at a meeting held at the start of last year's TUC Conference.

Bob also understood the importance of trade unions having a political voice and gave valued support to the development of the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition.

If the trade union movement had been led by more leaders with the determination of Bob Crow, then the Con-Dems would not have got away with the depth of attacks that they have inflicted on pay, jobs, pensions and conditions. 

The best way to remember Bob will be for trade unionists to build on his traditions of building both determined struggle and for genuine political representation for trade unionists.

Standing Up For Education

Across England and Wales, NUT Associations took to the streets today to take our message to the public about how Gove and this Government are damaging education.

On our stall in Lewisham, and I am sure repeated elsewhere, support from the public was strong. Parents commented on the lack of school places and the pressure of testing on their youngsters. Many expressed anger at how this Government seemed only interested in helping the wealthy through privatisation.

Several people spoke about  friends or relatives who were teachers and how people needed to understand how hard they worked. One young man explained how his partner had qualified to be a teacher but decided against finding a job because of the workload she knew she would face in teaching. She certainly isn't alone in making that decision.

Teachers should take heart at the public support - support which we have found whenever we have taken strike action.

Campaign stalls like this are vital to get our message across but we also have to remember that it will be our strike action that has the strength to really make politicians take note.

As we build for national action on March 26, any uncertainty in the messages we give to our members would be unforgiveable. When the NUT Executive meets for a special meeting next week, the conclusion must be to firmly and determinedly build for the strongest possible strike on March 26 - and to prepare for further action next term until we win real gains over pay, pensions and workload.

As today's stalls have shown, a determined stand will get wider support from a public angry at a Government that is attacking all our services and our children's education.

Answering Cable's insults

The first thing that colleagues wanted to talk to me about when I got to school this morning was their anger at Vince Cable's latest insult.

I am sure my staff weren't alone in feeling outraged at yet another politician criticising teachers. His choice of complaint - about deficiencies in career guidance  - is particularly galling. Why? Because it is Cable's Government that is responsible for cuts to the dedicated Connexions service, alongside budget cuts that have also slashed much of the additional career guidance once provided by councils.

The Education Select Committee have warned Ministers that cutting services, then simply expecting schools to fill the gap without additional resources, was going to undermine support to youngsters. Clearly Cable wasn't listening.

Instead, Cable chose to try and get a cheap laugh at the expense of teachers by accusing us of not knowing about the 'world of work'. The real problem is that politicians like Cable don't know about the world of education.

Many teachers have a wealth of experience from other employment. All of us work hard trying to equip our students with the skills they need to try to make their way forward in the uncertain future that lies in front of many of them. What we can't be expected to do is to provide specialised career guidance on top of the other responsibilities that already lead teachers to be working 50 to 60 hours a week!

I was glad to make some of these points on the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 this lunchtime and hope that I was able to speak up for the teaching profession. For the next few days, the discussion can be heard on the BBC Radio iplayer on http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03wpqtx (35 - 43 minutes).

Nick Clegg is now apologising for Vince Cable, realising perhaps the offence that his remarks have caused. Unfortunately for the LibDems, his comments won't be forgotten by teachers.

Building support for a solid strike on March 26

I was glad to be sitting on the small chair of an infant classroom this lunchtime, so that I could discuss with the staff of a Lewisham Infants' School about the reasons for our strike action on March 26.

After a quick run through the issues, and some queries answered about pay deductions, the attitude of other unions and the refusal by Michael Gove to offer any meaningful talks, it was clear that NUT members would be supporting the strike. This school was one of the few in the borough that had traditionally had a majority NASUWT membership - but no longer. Teachers were going to go and speak to those colleagues still in the NASUWT to explain why they felt that teachers should be taking action together.

Face-to-face contact like this is still the best way of answering questions and queries - but, with limited time, it's impossible to meet in every school. That's why I've also produced a PowerPoint that runs through the issues which can be downloaded from: http://goo.gl/leh1DX . Here are just some of the slides:

Download this presentation from http://goo.gl/leh1DX

As well as school meetings, NUT Local Associations are also meeting to make plans for action. I was pleased to attend a General Meeting in Lewes last night where the discussion also included consideration of nominations for NUT General Secretary. Just like a meeting of West Cheshire NUT that I could not attend in person on Monday, I was grateful that, having discussed my call for a clear calendar of ongoing action to win a clear set of demands, both Associations voted to nominate me to stand in June's General Secretary election.

A weekend to teach teachers - don't 'wait for Labour', rely on our own strength

Yesterday, Ed Milliband finally cut through the last remaining threads tying the Labour Party to its roots as a party created to provide a political voice for the trade union movement. Today, Tristram Hunt went onto the Sunday Politics show to announce that a future Labour Government "won't repeal Gove's school reforms". 

If any teacher was in doubt, this weekend has provided further evidence that we can't rely on any Government elected after the next General Election to willingly reverse the direction of education policy. Instead, we will need to rely on our own strength to force politicians to think again.

Scandalously, but not unsurprisingly, Hunt is quoted on http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/03/02/we-won-t-repeal-michael-gove-s-school-reforms-admits-labour as saying "I don't think you want to waste political energy on undoing reforms, that in certain situations build actually rather successfully on Labour party policy" 

Meanwhile, yesterday, the special Labour Party conference voted to further dilute the ability of the affiliated trade unions to influence the direction and policies of a future Labour government. 

So, while most teachers rightly want to see the back of Gove, Osbourne and Cameron, this weekend will make even more question who they can vote for at the next General Election. However, these events can also help convince teachers that we have to take strike action on March 26 and beyond. 'Waiting for Labour' is simply not an option.

Regrettably, I believe that the Labour Party has been fundamentally changed  from the Party that I joined as a teenager to campaign for a real alternative to Thatcherism. 

I believe that the struggles that we will have to wage in the months and years ahead will convince ever wider layers of trade unionists that we need to rebuild our own political voice. Hunt's comments make ever clearer that the Labour Party is not going to provide it.

United action can make us stronger

At the instigation of the NUT, but with the involvement of most of the teacher unions, a packed Professional Unity Conference met today in London.

As Christine Blower, NUT GS, described it, today was not more than a 'tentative step' towards 'one union for all teachers' but nevertheless it was significant that so many colleagues from so many different backgrounds and traditions were represented. 

Messages of support to the event were given from NAHT and ASCL and opening speeches given by speakers from the NUT, ATL and UCAC as well as from OAJ, the union representing 95% of Finnish teachers. 

Some individual UCU and NASUWT members were in attendance. However, regrettably but perhaps predictably given their present stance on joint national strike action, the NASUWT was not officially represented.

In part, the pressures on facility time, the costs of competing for membership and providing separate support and resources for members mean that, as with other parts of the trade union movement, teaching unions know that they need to speak together. However, that's not the critical issue for classroom teachers. 

For colleagues battling against common attacks on pay, pensions, conditions and state education, building united action is vital to build collective strength against a common enemy. That is even more the case in the increasingly atomised education system in which we work.

Both the messages from the NAHT and ASCL made clear that they were more sceptical of a single union but wanted to find ways of unions speaking together with a common voice as much as possible.

Mary Bousted, ATL GS, speaking by video, rightly suggested that in principle we would be "better together" but warned that any such move would have to be carefully prepared. Mary made clear that the ATL would be looking towards a new union with a new rule-book and constitution. 

Those details will, indeed, be critical. 'Unity is strength' has long been a watchword of the trade union movement. But that strength needs to be used. Building a larger union that doesn't have collective action at its core would be a waste of that potential strength.

Any rulebook needs to make sure that a new Union has democratic and inclusive structures that ensure that the discontent and concerns of classroom teachers drive decisions. I would be confident that a union rooted in its members in this way would be a union that would also stand for bold collective action and campaigning to defend teachers and education.

Howard Stevenson reminded the Conference that teachers first became organised to oppose payment by results and to win national collective bargaining. Far from 'opposing change' as politicians sometimes claim, Howard pointed out that teachers helped implement tremendous progressive change in the 60s and 70s. However, when Governments switched to policies that sought to reverse that progressive change, the division between teacher unions made it harder to oppose that 'pushback'.

Howard called for more organisation at workplace level, fighting on professional concerns as well as on pay and conditions. The conclusion he drew was, to build that collective voice, teacher unions must work together. He pointed to DfE research that pointed out that 97% of teachers were unionised - a huge potential barrier to those who want to dismantle comprehensive education - but divided across multiple unions.

The discussion showed that, while today might only have  been billed as a 'tentative' step, teachers want concrete steps towards unity to be taken speedily.

The workshop feedback produced a series of suggested initiatives including follow-up regional meetings to promote professional unity amongst teachers, cross-union joint reps' training and regular local meetings of reps and local officers to work on united action and campaigns.

Joint meetings in schools, discussing the common problems we face, and the action needed to confront them, will be vital to build that unity at school level.