WHAT SHOULD WE DO NOW ?

The NUT National Executive meets to decide on its next steps on May 8th. Some NEC members will want to seize the time and push ahead with further action - but others will want to delay.

So I think school groups should:
Meet and agree on a motion to send in to the National Executive.
E-mail to c.blower@nut.org.uk. For example, (and see Jason's posting below) 80 members of Bolton NUT voted to “welcome the NUT Conference decision to continue our fight on the linked issues of pay, workload and class size by building for more strike action at the earliest ‘appropriate’ time. We believe this should mean balloting for discontinuous strike action to begin in the summer term and we call on the executive to launch such a ballot as soon as possible”.

Call on your colleagues in other unions to demand they are balloted for action too. Let’s build for joint action across every union. Colleagues in UNISON, GMB, ATL & NASUWT should call for ballots too.

Build the Lobby of Parliament on Monday June 9th. The TUC have called a joint lobby on pay - but , if there’s no NUT strike on the day (which, unfortunately, is likely given the tight timescale and the fact that the National Executive have not met straight away to discuss a new ballot), we need to organise now to ensure schools agree to release reps so that they can go.

Get organised in your school ! Build on the confidence we can draw from April 24th, get involved in your union, make demands on your leaders, contact Classroom Teacher, stand firm on local issues too.

Martin Powell-Davies