Young Teachers Call For Action

The fantastic atmosphere throughout June’s NUT Young Teachers Conference was due in no small way to April’s national strike action which brought many young members into union activity for the first time.

The main themes of the conference were the union’s pay and workload campaigns. There was no shortage of teachers wanting to express their views on both!

Many were disappointed by the decision not to re-ballot as soon as possible and strike again before the summer but, despite this, the mood was to make sure the next action was as big as possible, and hopefully alongside other unions.

Speakers who discussed teachers’ excessive workload, and rightly stressed the need for collective solutions to a problem we all face, struck a chord with the audience .

I hope our leadership will display some of the determination shown by the young teachers present and sanction action on workload that will really make a difference on vital issues such as management time, teacher numbers and class sizes.

Phil Clarke, member of the Young Teachers Advisory Committee