Sunday 7 September 2014

Bad decision shows the need to organise the rank and file.

The decision by the NUT Executive not to join our support staff colleagues in UNISON, GMB and UNITE when they take strike action on October 14th is a huge disappointment and will come as a major blow to workers in those unions as they prepare to follow up on July 10th. This will be the first day of joint strike action in the public sector in recent years which will not involve the NUT. In 2008, 2011 (twice) and July 10th this year we have been at the heart of such events. The decision to abstain from this one is a watershed and not a good one.

At the September Executive I proposed, and Martin Powell Davies seconded, a proposal that we take action alongside our sisters and brothers in the local government unions on October 14th. We even included a provision to call this action off if the other unions changed their plans due to progress on their dispute. 12 Executive members supported this proposal but 26 opposed it. Members are entitled to know the arguments put for this retreat. The most common was that we are to hold a major consultation with members about the future of our own campaign this term and that isn't due to end until October 23rd. It was argued that we should wait until that finished before calling further action. We did point out that no other aspect of the campaign was to be suspended in this way. Street stalls, lobbies of MPs, action in schools- all of this can continue. Only the possibility of industrial action is to be put on hold. And this at a time when some of our fellow workers in schools, the same people who struck alongside us in July will be taking further action.

It was also said that we have a different dispute but, of course, that was no less true in July than it is now and yet it was seen then as an advantage to strike together. Evidence was presented to suggest that support for July 10th was 'patchy'. Apart from the fact that is is always true (action is never evenly supported across the entire country) we all knew that late July was not the optimum time for teachers to strike. Instead it was a date settled on to allow a greater overall impact due to the action of other unions. October 14th, on the other hand, doesn't have that disadvantage and will coincide with the first decisions to refuse pay increments to main scale teachers who could previously expect automatic increases. We could reasonably have expected a greater turnout and an even more successful day than July 10th.

While disappointing, the decision not to take part shouldn't come entirely as a surprise. I am standing in the election for NUT Deputy General Secretary precisely because I think the resistance to the attacks on our pensions and pay has been poorly-led for at least three years. I was asked to stand by an organisation of NUT branches who share that view and decided to work to create a more effective strategy which could win. This organisation, the Local Associations National Action Campaign (LANAC) is more important now than ever. If you share our disappointment at the decision to abstain from October 14th I would appeal to you to keep your morale high and take some positive steps.
  • Affiliate your local NUT association to LANAC or invite a speaker to one of your local meetings
  • Ensure that your local secretary puts DGS nominations on an association OGM before December and propose my nomination
  • Vote 'YES' and urge other members to do likewise in the NUT consultation on the future if the campaign.
  • Meet in your school group and discuss what members can do to support our colleagues in UNISON, GMB and UNITE on October 14th. This should include discussion about whether it is safe to open the school in the absence of key staff and whether it is possible to do our jobs without teaching assistants unless we actually cover for the work they do. It should also consider whether members who struck with support staff in July will refuse to cross any picket lines they may put up in October. 
  • Look out for LANAC material which will give more advice on supporting October 14th.

At the conference which launched LANAC in June 2012 I urged delegates from associations to follow the advice of the American trade union giant Joe Hill, 'Don't mourn, organise'. We should respond to the current situation in the same spirit.

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