Unity in Action can push aside Social Partnership
Martin Powell-Davies (Lewisham NUT)
A Salary dispute in a Lewisham primary school confirms teachers’ instincts to build ‘unity in action’ – as well as giving reassuring evidence that parents will back teachers taking strike action.
The dispute is at Merlin School, serving a largely white working-class estate in the south of Lewisham. Most teachers have been in the NUT, but not with any tradition of militancy. No, this dispute simply reflects the indignation of teachers who find out that their governors think it’s OK to cut their pay!
The dispute is over the extra Recruitment and Retention payments that NUT Associations like Lewisham, Camden and Westminster managed to win for teachers during the long struggles over inadequate London Weighting.
Over 600 Lewisham teachers are still being paid these R&Rs but, like at Merlin, some schools are proposing they be withdrawn. It’s bad enough not getting a pay rise that keeps up with inflation, but an actual pay cut – of over £1,000 a year – is too much to accept!
Merlin staff have been determined to resist the pay cuts – including those younger staff who have not been entitled to the payments. The ballot result was only 7 to 1 – but, when it came to the meeting before the strike, all eleven NUT members were ready to strike (an important lesson for our national dispute too).
But that left two teachers and a Deputy Head who were in other unions. With rumours spreading that the school might try (illegally) to bring in supply teachers to keep the school open, they wanted to make clear that they stood by their colleagues. As the NASUWT, NAHT and ATL had not balloted, the option was simple – join the NUT! (and the new £7.10 joining rate helped the decision too!). This left just the Head not joining the strike!
The next evening, the whole teaching staff came out to leaflet parents at the school gates. Our message was quite simple; “Could you afford a £1,000 pay cut?”. It was a message that made sense to parents. Many simply said, “of course you have to strike”! There was virtually no hostility – but a few offers to bring coffee to the picket line!
The Merlin dispute is continuing – now with a larger NUT membership than before. To these staff, taking unity in action was common sense. Any thought that they would succeed simply by ‘negotiations’ had long since gone.
Whether by uniting inside the NUT or, as NUT and NASUWT members did over TLRs in St.Helens, by different unions taking action together, teachers understand that ‘unity is strength’. That is why we should make clear that we stand for a single democratic and campaigning union for teachers. But that unity cannot possibly be built on the basis of a failed ‘social partnership’ which has simply allowed the Government to worsen pay and conditions – and education as a whole.
Just as at Merlin School, our present national pay dispute will make ATL and NASUWT members ask what their unions are doing. Some will join the NUT to take action, others may not – but will hopefully add pressure on their leaders to follow suit, just as the NASUWT had to ballot for our second day of strike action over London Allowances in 2002. Our national action will make the Government take note – and, as one consequence, hasten the return of national negotiating rights.
A Salary dispute in a Lewisham primary school confirms teachers’ instincts to build ‘unity in action’ – as well as giving reassuring evidence that parents will back teachers taking strike action.
The dispute is at Merlin School, serving a largely white working-class estate in the south of Lewisham. Most teachers have been in the NUT, but not with any tradition of militancy. No, this dispute simply reflects the indignation of teachers who find out that their governors think it’s OK to cut their pay!
The dispute is over the extra Recruitment and Retention payments that NUT Associations like Lewisham, Camden and Westminster managed to win for teachers during the long struggles over inadequate London Weighting.
Over 600 Lewisham teachers are still being paid these R&Rs but, like at Merlin, some schools are proposing they be withdrawn. It’s bad enough not getting a pay rise that keeps up with inflation, but an actual pay cut – of over £1,000 a year – is too much to accept!
Merlin staff have been determined to resist the pay cuts – including those younger staff who have not been entitled to the payments. The ballot result was only 7 to 1 – but, when it came to the meeting before the strike, all eleven NUT members were ready to strike (an important lesson for our national dispute too).
But that left two teachers and a Deputy Head who were in other unions. With rumours spreading that the school might try (illegally) to bring in supply teachers to keep the school open, they wanted to make clear that they stood by their colleagues. As the NASUWT, NAHT and ATL had not balloted, the option was simple – join the NUT! (and the new £7.10 joining rate helped the decision too!). This left just the Head not joining the strike!
The next evening, the whole teaching staff came out to leaflet parents at the school gates. Our message was quite simple; “Could you afford a £1,000 pay cut?”. It was a message that made sense to parents. Many simply said, “of course you have to strike”! There was virtually no hostility – but a few offers to bring coffee to the picket line!
The Merlin dispute is continuing – now with a larger NUT membership than before. To these staff, taking unity in action was common sense. Any thought that they would succeed simply by ‘negotiations’ had long since gone.
Whether by uniting inside the NUT or, as NUT and NASUWT members did over TLRs in St.Helens, by different unions taking action together, teachers understand that ‘unity is strength’. That is why we should make clear that we stand for a single democratic and campaigning union for teachers. But that unity cannot possibly be built on the basis of a failed ‘social partnership’ which has simply allowed the Government to worsen pay and conditions – and education as a whole.
Just as at Merlin School, our present national pay dispute will make ATL and NASUWT members ask what their unions are doing. Some will join the NUT to take action, others may not – but will hopefully add pressure on their leaders to follow suit, just as the NASUWT had to ballot for our second day of strike action over London Allowances in 2002. Our national action will make the Government take note – and, as one consequence, hasten the return of national negotiating rights.
posted by classroom teacher at
10:47
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