Support from the Shop Stewards' Network

http://www.shopstewards.net

It is good to see the NUT is respectable enough for the shop stewards network now we have been on strike :)

Have a look at the "Disputes and Campaigns" section on the National shop Stewards' Network. We have pictures and reports of various events during last Thursday's actions, and material on Workers Memorial Day, Monday 28 April, with details of the events in London on this day dedicated to health and safety at work.

And we have information on a new pamphlet: "What's Happening? The Truth About Work ... & The Myth of 'Work - Life Balance'" based on interviews with trade unionists in a wide variety of jobs.

It is for shop stewards (reps) but they won't turn away members in other roles who want to come I expect. This grassroots network could prove very important in the next few months if we are to build unity across the public sector.

Classroom Teacher 5

Click here to download and print out

How was it for you?

We have changed the colours from blackboard to whiteboard to make the blog more readable.

Read about action in your area
Email in about action in your area to classroomteacher@yahoo.co.uk

Hull

Bristol

Coventry and Birmingham

Huddersfield

London

Brighton and Eastbourne

St Helens

Worthing

Ipswich

Bolton and Manchester

and the new Classroom Teacher 5

Action changing teachers' outlook in Hull

The strike and rally was mostly very successful in Hull and the East Riding. We think about half the schools were closed or partially closed in the region. The response was a real mixture of full support in some schools to one school deciding as a group that they did not want to take action.

I have taken a patient and sympathetic approach with those who did not want to strike or did not strike and believe that the success of the 24th will bolster some of the waverers for future battles. Most members I spoke to were supportive of the aims of the strike, even those that did not vote for it.

For me the most interesting response was from the younger teachers. At one school I went to, a young teacher (late 20s) said she supported the strike but had seen Billy Elliott and was worried about clashes with the police and being spat at! Whilst this is amusing at one level it encapsulates the level of awareness of a wide layer of younger teachers. We should not underestimate the personal battles with themselves that some of our members have gone through to take action.

However those that came to the rally that we held jointly with the east riding were transformed. One young teacher who had not been to any school based meetings said the day after "it was fantastic to see everyone together all united!" You could see the expressions of delight on the faces of some of the older teachers in their fifties. Many of whom thought they would never see a day like we had again after the battles of the eighties.

At the rally we had speakers from PCS, UCU and Unison - all were well received and the sense we were not alone in our battle with the government raised the sights of teachers.

Mike Whale

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

Young Teachers demand action in Bristol

3000 of us marched through the streets of Bristol. The mood was electric. When I spoke at the rally, I apologised if I had crossed any picket-line the last time the NUT had held a national strike - I was only in reception class! I pointed out how rubbish the government were at maths when it came to calculating inflation; the fact that when you work out the long hours we work, young teachers like me were earning less than £7 an hour; and it was great that NUT, PCS and UCU were on strike - but, next time, all the public sector unions should be out together!

Sheila Caffrey

A fantastic day in Coventry and Birmingham

What a fantastic day! I started the day in Coventry with a picket at my Primary school in Coventry. Myself and a number of other members including an NQT, leafleted the parents and had a wonderful response. Every parent took a leaflet and many wished us luck with the campaign. One parent who works for the DWP said 'I'll see you at the rally. I'm striking today too!'. In fact we had no negative comments at all and we were spurred on despite the pouring rain by all the toots from passing motorists.

We held a rally in Coventry City Centre where we were joined by members of the PCS and UCU. The most inspiring speech came from a young teacher who spoke about how her student debt and low pay meant that she might never be able to afford a mortgage. Another young teacher had worked out her pay by the hours she actually works and discovered she earns less than the minimum wage! Then we marched to our coaches to Birmingham for the rally where we joined thousands of teachers and City Council workers who were on their second day of action against single status. We marched through the city centre making up new slogans to chant at passing shoppers.

It was an inspiring day which I know has given many teachers the confidence to fight for, not just better pay, but, also, better working conditions in their schools.

Nicky Downes

Wow!! What an absolutely fantastic day. We had pickets at a number of secondary, primary and special schools from 7.30 this morning. I managed to get round 5 picket lines and everyone was really upbeat about the support they were receiving from drivers and parents. Although it rained heavily they were not downhearted- one school, shortly to become an Academy decided to stay there all day.

At 9.15 many strikers congregated in a local bar for breakfast and dried out a bit before attending a short Coventry Rally. This was organised at short notice to bring together our local unions who were taking part in strike action. UCU and PCS spoke about their campaigns for better pay. Young teachers spoke of their hardship and why they were taking strike action. It was really lively and determined.

At 10.45 we boarded buses to Birmingham for the main event of the day. Chamberlain Square was packed with thousands of strikers from the NUT, PCS, UCU and the Birmingham City Council unions who were on their second day of a 2 day strike over the Single Status pay deal which will see hundreds of workers lose substantial amounts of pay. Teachers were easger to have stickers placards leaflets and arm bands/hats We were all singing along to songs like ‘I’d rather be a picket than a scab!’ led by Banner Theatre group and the demonstration was the most lively I have been on for a while with teachers shouting their demands through the streets of Birmingham. Baljeet Ghale and Roger King spoke at the rally along with other trade union representatives.

We returned home tired but absolutely adamant that the campaign must continue. In fact the question we were being asked by teachers was ‘What happens next?’ Obviously there will be big discussions within the Union over the coming period but one thing that will come from this strike is that many of our members will have grown in confidence and will hopefully be more moved to say a resounding ‘No!’ to Heads when unreasonable demands are made of them. It was absolutely clear from those on the demo and the picket lines and at the rallies is that they are prepared to take more action.

Jane Nellist

Huddersfield Report

Across Kirklees dozens of schools closed on April 24 th. At my school four of us held a picket line. Over 25 pounds was given to us by NASUWT and ATL members for the NUT's hardship fund, which illustrates the sympathy that the NUT's campaign has with teachers in other unions.

We finished our picket line at 9 and then went into Huddersfiled and went to the UCU picket line at Huddersfield Technical College. The rep there made the point very forcefully that April 24 th should be seen as the starting point of a coordinated fightback by all the public sector unions. She agreed that the unions have to coordinate the next round of strike action to have the maximum impact upon the government.

Over 200 attended the NUT rally which had speakers from PCS, UCU and UNISON. The best received speaker was Stella Dennis from the PCS. Her call for a united front of public sector unions to fight the government's pay freeze was received with rapturous applause.

A friend of mine who went to the Barnsley rally said that they had over 200 at their rally. All present bar one voted for further strike action to further the campaign in a show of hands at the end of the rally.

Dylan Murphy

On the march in London

Avenue Primary School, 3 form entry in Newham, was closed on April 24th. 16 out of 26 NUT members who were on strike met up and went on the demo from Lincoln Inn Fields to Westminster Hall. 10 of the 16 were young teachers on strike for the first time, our contingent was energetic and noisy with whistles and chants as we followed our school banner. 3 secondary teachers from Roding Valley and 8 primary teachers from other schools in Newham and Redbridge all young teachers (many of them NQTs) joined our lively group. The whole Avenue group and 2 Roding Valley teachers got into the rally and stayed to hear all the speakers, applauding loudly whenever the need for more strikes with other public sector workers was raised.

Caroline, NQT, only joined the NUT 2 weeks ago! She said people kept telling her she ought to join a union and when the NUT called the strike she thought "I'll join them because at least they're doing something!" At the rally she said "I'm so glad I joined and so glad I came today." Kat, a young teacher, brought her 13 month old son on the march and rally. She said she wished people knew that on top of loans, some young teachers like her are struggling to provide for young children. "I can't afford childcare on top of high mortgage repayments that take 2/3 of my salary - I couldn't manage without the help of my mother and aunty! I worry about how to pay my bills and buy food all the time."

Many of my young teacher members commented the next day, that they were so glad they came because if they stayed at home and only listened to the news they would only have heard the biased comments about teachers leaving them feeling isolated and demoralised! Instead they felt a new confidence and hope that unity is strength and that together with other public sector workers, NUT members can push back this government's attacks on our pay and conditions.

Louise Cuffaro, Newham NUT.

What a Day!

“What a day” – “we never expected such a brilliant turn-out” – “it’s revitalised my thinking about the union” These were just some of the comments made by a fantastic crowd of protesters last Thursday.

I had the privilege of being a steward at the event, although, fair dos to the Old Bill, they had it so well set up there wasn’t much for us to do! I walked past one big beefy motor-bike cop and he asked for a look at one of the leaflets I was handing out. As I handed it over, I remarked “It tells you why we’re striking.” Came the wonderfully unexpected reply, “I know why. It’s because this government’s full of sh**!” which just confirmed the feeling that there was more than just a token support from the boys and girls in blue! (They’d already given us an awesome route for the march)

If this is the kind of support we can expect from them (and let’s face it – they’re not generally regarded as the most radical group of unionists!) just think what we can expect from the rest of the public service unions. Let’s hope our executive takes this sort of message on board and goes ahead with further ballots for discontinuous action. Why not aim for June 9th? What a message THAT would send.

But back to the opening line – What a day! I was buzzing for the rest of the day, filled with the feeling – no – the KNOWLEDGE – that the masses CAN change the world.
Let’s get them out again.
SOON!

David Plews (NUT rep, Deptford Park Primary)

Sussex rallies on the coast

Across Sussex on may 24th Teachers headed to the coast to join up with other public sector workers in the UCU and PCS union to support the strike. There were packed meetings in Brighton, Eastbourne and Worthing as schools across the area closed for the day. In Brighton despite the rain so many turned out for the march they had to turn people away from the rally because the venue staff told the NUT organisers ‘you just can’t fit any more people in’!

The Eastbourne rally saw speakers from the NUT, PCS, UCU explaining why they had taken action and were joined by officers from Lewes prison who are looking to re-create their highly successful strike in the near future. The debate from the floor brought up many questions, amongst them workers asking why the unions still fund the Labour Party. In fact it is no co-incidence that none of the unions on the platform do give money to Labour, but are willing to stand up for their members pay!

In Brighton huge a round of applause went to a UCU speaker who pointed out the if a handful of New Labour MPs can send Gordon Brown into reverse, then imagine what hundreds of thousands of public sector workers can do.

The big question however was ‘what next?’ It is vital the NUT build on this strike and see it as the beginning of a campaign, writing to MPs is not enough now, we must ballot for another days strike as soon as possible and most importantly build links with other unions so there can be a huge show of anger by the public sector.

There was no doubt that the call for a 24 hour public sector strike went down well, it is now our job to build it, and force the government to value us.

Phil Clarke

St.Helens on strike

The support for strike action in St. Helens exceeded the Union’s expectations. We found that even schools that never get in touch with the Union or come to union meetings were solidly behind the strike. The result was that the majority of school pupils in St. Helens were told to stay at home. It’s a reminder that we teachers have a really powerful strike weapon.

The government said we only had the support of a minority of our members but on the day when members had the choice to strike or go to work, they nearly all came out. That’s the ballot that really counts!

There was even an independent school that told its pupils to stay at home after members there were balloted as a result of an administrative error! The teachers had to go in because they were not legally covered by the ballot, but they have asked to be balloted properly next time!

We went down to the rally in Liverpool and it was great. We had a banner made specially for the occasion which really stood out and brought the journalists to us. It was really good to feel the solidarity between members of different public sector unions. They booked a hotel room for 500 people for an indoor rally after the march and they had to turn 200 people away because of fire regulations!

The government are claiming support from parents but the local newspapers can only get quotes from the local chamber of commerce to criticise our strike. In fact, our members are reporting support from parents, even when they are seriously affected. More parents are like us, fed up with below inflationary pay increases than are worried about their employees not being able to come to work.

Members who came on the rally are already talking about ‘next time’. It is clear that we need to build for further action to get the government to back down. Other public sector unions are looking to come onboard so that will strengthen our position and enable us to win a victory for all public sector workers.

Robin Pye

A Great Rally - but also a missed opportunity

At the end of the London march about 2,000 packed into Central Hall. The atmosphere was vibrant. Teachers enthusiastically applauded all speakers, both experienced trade union leaders and tentative young teachers. Whenever anyone made any comment that articulated the plight of teachers, cheers went up and whistles rang out. And when Brendan Barber of the TUC highlighted the Fair Deal for Public Services Campaign and said that what was needed was “action together”, it struck a chord.

Unfortunately, however, he did not follow through. He failed to commit the TUC to calling such joint action. He spoke of the 26 public sector service unions needing to “pool resources”, but went no further. He had a real chance to raise the idea clearly of a one-day public sector strike. It would have drawn mass support form teachers, got massive media headlines and sent a shockwave through government circles.

If New Labour only listens through pressure, then a TUC a one-day public sector strike would be the strongest possible pressure! A great rally, but also a missed opportunity.

Linda Taaffe, Waltham Forest NUT

The eponymous Mr Balls and the PR battle

I thoroughly enjoyed the 24th and was in a splendidly good mood after the London march. All this was swiftly destroyed by anger when I heard a load of Balls from the man himself - all that stuff about only 10% teachers wanting to strike, how we ruined peoples' lives with a one day strike, how we all earned £40,000, oh, and those endless holidays when we all sit around doing no work at all..
Can't remember which bits were actually said by Ed, and how much by the BBC and their very one-sided reporting - I can only assumed Ed had been briefing them.
I for one would gladly strike again tomorrow - the amount of casework I picked up while strolling down Whitehall is in itself proof that far too many teachers are overworked and underpaid.
We must keep up the PR battle and work swiftly to counter the half-truths, downright lies and negative images generated by Balls and his cronies. Petitions and writing to MPs etc are all very well, but please let's have more and better materials to explain simply to parents and the wider public why we need to take action. If we are to get a bad image in the national media, we need to work locally to counteract it. Off the top of my head, what about getting young teachers leaving the profession to write open letters to parents to be distributed ad school gates - letters that spell out that low pay and high workload mean that young teachers can't afford to stay? I am sure there are many other and better ideas out there - let's start collecting and distributing them NOW, so we go into the next round with more parents and public understanding why we are doing it.

London March

Worthing demo

Derek McMillan writes:

We were just overwhelmed by the response when 283 of our members turned up in Worthing - others went to the Brighton demo.

The Classroom Teacher 4 flier was very well-received. The mood of members was electric and all the speakers were cheered to the echo.

The support from PCS was welcome and the feeling felt by many first time strikers from small rural schools was that they are part of a much wider movement and they can feel more confident to take action.

The WSTA is pushing the idea of strengthening union organisation as a result of the strike by setting up email circles of reps and using a blog and a facebook group to draw our new activists together.

These 283 are the key to the future of WSTA and by making a strong organisation we can win.

Some amusement has been expressed at the idea that Classroom Teacher is a "London based group of activists!"

Ipswich demo

Roger Mackay writes:

A demo of 150 striking teachers in Ipswich was cheered in the streets as they made their way to a Rally. These numbers reflect an excellent turnout of NUT members in the area, with 55 schools closed in Suffolk and a further 120 affected by the action.
Cameras from Channel 4 and BBC Look East were in attendance, the Channel 4 reporter told me that Ipswich was seem as typical of the country.
The mood of the teachers at the rally, from every sector of Education was high and responded well to the speakers from the Local Association and the local Trades Council. Harvey Crane from the PCS got a warm reception when he spoke about more joint action amongst public sector workers.
There was a high proportion of young teachers present, which augers well for the future, as no one was in any doubt that further action will be necessary.
Predictably,the local radio managed to find two high school pupils who said teachers should be thinking of them and their exams, but when did striking workers ever get support from the media. Only in retrospect!
Ipswich For Public Services was an organisation set up last year by the Trades Council in the wake of a meeting at the time of PCS and CWU action. Mark Sewotka addressed that meeting and inspired local public sector workers.
Todays' action has further bolstered that organisation and we will look to the future with confidence.

Good points- but how to progress this?

Jason writes:Brilliant rally in Bolton of about 150- excllent mood, militant speeches.
But I could hardly beleive my eyes in Manchester- 12-1500 on the streets. There's definitely the mood for further action and we should push for it as soon as poosible, you're right.
One tactic as you suggest is bombard the execuitve with demands for a ballot. At an 80 strong meeting of Bolton NUt we passed a motion calling for just this- and in the summer term.
But will the executive listen? Perhaps, if we get eneough associations- but even so we can't depend on them and we desperately need to get organised a genuine rank and file inititiative, workplace organisations, e-lists, getting new members and layers of activists involved.
Still harder said than done- but we should try and keep trying.
But what just might give this a real kick start this- what about electing strike committees in every workplace we can, having indicative ballots in every workplace we can, pushing for local actions- meetings, stalls, student meetings, addressing different union branches in other sectors, cross union committees.
And-crucially- pushing for ballots over local issues. Change of employer? Demand a ballot. Change of conditions or working day? Demand a ballot. Redundancies or any other job losses? Demand a ballot.
What do people think?
As an immediate step the left in the NUT should get organised and work together over these points and push for tactics that will win

Classroom Teacher 4

The leaflet for the strike on Thursday 24th April is now available here

Write about your experience of the strike, especially if this is your first strike ever and email it to classroom.teachers(at)yahoo.co.uk

Supply teachers cannot be used to break the strike

We just had a phone call from an alert rep at Stillness Infants in Lewisham
who had discovered that the Head was planning to bring in four supply
teachers to cover NUT members striking on Thursday.

A quick phone call to the agency quoting the legislation outlawing the use
of agencies to cover for striking staff (without even the threat of the
protest we would have organised outside their offices!) achieved an easy
victory. The agency staff are now being withdrawn.

Look out for strikebreaking by Heads / agencies !

West Sussex

Derek McMillan writes:

I was delighted to get a call from a retired teacher who wanted to support the strike fund and we have had members who are not striking - for example those in private schools or final year of teaching - offering to give money instead.

The vote at my school was 3-1 in favour and the school will be closed and I have been getting similar reports from elsewhere in the county. A lot depends on the rep and we have many excellent ones - I have also had calls from two members who feel isolated by an unsupportive rep - some reps will be replaced by the keen new activists coming into action on Thursday.

The first time strikers can revolutionise the union. We need to keep together and keep in touch after Thursday - using email, blogs, the old fashioned telephone and meetings.

And Classroom Teacher 4 has been well received. Download and print it out.

Bolton report

Jason Travis writes:

Bolton NUT 15th April in an 80 strong meeting representing 40 schools unanimously voted for the following motion.



We urge other branches to pass this motion, to push the executive into balloting the membership and to use this strike to begin to revive rank and file activity in the NUT:



"Bolton association welcomes 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."

Report from Lewisham

Martin writes:

We held a well-attended emergency NUT reps meeting tonight – especially good as it was the first day back after the holidays! Reports from school reps confirmed that nearly half our schools will be totally closed by the strike and most others partially closed with only a handful unaffected. Plans have been made for school-gate protests at many of the big secondary schools and then a big Lewisham NUT contingent will be joining the march in Central London.

Bolton NUT

Bolton NUT 15th April in an 80 strong meeting representing 40 schools unanimously voted for the following motion.

We urge other branches to pass this motion, to push the executive into balloting the membership and to use this strike to begin to revive rank and file activity in the NUT:

"Bolton association welcomes 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."

Teacher Support Network

Message from the TSN:

Outside of our tools on our site http://teachersupport.info, We also have some entry points set up on the social network sites.



On Facebook:

Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teacher-Support-Network/8348473439

Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2385602766

Would enjoy your participation and feedback. We’re also looking to get more teacher bloggers involved with TSN’s online work to create more teacher bloggers, or at least more participants talking about issues facing UK educators. We’re in the midst of creating some new online tools and would be neat to have you on board to maybe look at some of them as we’re developing them.



Anyway, any input is welcome. Thanks in advance



Andrew Lyons
Digital Media Manager
Teacher Support Network

West Sussex Day of Action

Well you will get a feeling of deja vu from the West Sussex strike newsletter as it is based on the Classroom Teacher flier.

There is a rally in Worthing at 10 at the Pavilion Theatre. Click here for all the details. And a lifelong learning newsletter is to be distributed to members at the rally so we can keep in touch with the new first-time strikers.

The new members coming in to activity for the first time can revolutionise the union. (I tend not to use the term "new layers" because it sounds like hens!)

Tributes to Steve Sinnott

A personal view from Derek McMillan
There are tributes to Steve Sinnott on Facebook and you can add your own.


Jesus wept. He was just my age. We didn't always see eye to eye, I voted for his opponent Martin Powell-Davies. But what people always said about Steve was that he had a phenomenal memory for people and staff at HQ used to tell stories of him meeting someone several years after a brief conversation and remembering the name, what the conversation was about, family details.

Christine Blower takes over at a difficult time but also an exhilarating time and her first statement said we will continue the causes that Steve put his heart and mind behind.

He wanted to unite the union more than anything else and he got that. Indeed thousands of people who are not even union members are supporting the strike. It is up to us what we do with that unity now it has been achieved.

TES survey

The TES online survey shows massive support from non NUT teachers for strike action. Their union leaders should wake up and pay attention!

Source: TES online survey of 7,336 teachers, of whom 3,521
were NUT members

Is the one-day strike on April 24 a good idea?

All teachers Yes 62% No 38%
Non-NUT members Yes 52% No 48%
NUT members Yes 73% No 27%
(The same proportion of NUT members said they intended to
walk out on April 24)

Will it cause your school to close?

All teachers Yes 47% No 53%
Non-NUT members Yes 39% No 61%
NUT members Yes 55% No 45%