Teachers: strike in November, go on to win!

Submitted by Anon on 12 September, 2008 - 11:35 Author: Patrick Murphy

On Friday 5 September the NUT Executive voted unanimously for a new strike ballot to continue our campaign for decent levels of pay. The ballot will open on 6 October and close on 3 November. our last ballot sought support for only a one day strike, despite an earlier decision by the Executive to go for discontinuous action. This time union members will be asked to support discontinuous action so we will not be restricted to a one-off protest strike. That is very good, though a lot of time and momentum has now been lost.

The strike on 24 April was a tremendous demonstration of what is possible when even a minority of public sector trade unionists make a united stand. The chances of building the kind of movement necessary to defeat the government’s policy of making workers pay for the economic crisis would have been stronger by now, however, if that first action had been immediately built on .

As it is, civil servants in PCS and Unison local government members have taken action in isolation since then, while the NUT delayed, needing to ballot for further action.

The NUT’s strike will have to take place between 19-27 November. PCS have announced plans to ballot 250,000 members for action (which will be co-ordinated) and UCU will decide later this month whether to join this action. The possibility of an effective joint public sector fight on pay is, therefore, back on, and it is important to make it a reality.

The previous NUT ballot saw 75% of members vote for strike action on a 32% turnout. To be absolutely sure of a strong campaign we will need to match those figures. That will not be easy, but the basic arguments for action have only got stronger.

Inflation was 3.8% back in April — now it is 5%. The government’s argument was that the real measure of inflation (consumer prices) was 2.2% and therefore we were getting a rise! They lost that argument then but in any case the CPI is now 4.4% so, even by their skewed measure, we are facing a pay cut. Finally there was a possibility that the teachers pay review body would look again at last year’s pay deal (2.5%) under a trigger mechanism which the NUT invoked in June. When the union used this trigger last year the review body asked the Secretary of state for permission to review teachers’ pay and he rejected the idea. This year the review body decided to cut to the chase and save Ed Balls the time. They simply turned down the request for a review. It is clearer than ever that teachers face a simple choice — collective action or continuing pay cuts.

Teachers will see our pay increase by 2.45% this month at a time when inflation is 5%, fuel prices are going up by 40% and the price of basic foods is rising at twice the overall rate. That situation won’t end this year. The current rise is part of a three-year pay deal which will see below-inflation rises for 2009 and 2010 (2.3% each year). The chances of turning that around will be very small if the current campaign fizzles out or fails.

On 16 September NUT branch secretaries will meet at the union’s office in London to discuss the pay campaign. The focus of the meeting will be getting the vote out, with practical strategies for communicating the arguments. That focus is a reasonable one and all that will need doing effectively. But activists need to start discussing something else. The NUT urgently needs to develop a strategy which can win.

A series of one-day strikes with large gaps in the middle where nothing much happens will not shift the government. It will also be seen by members as tokenistic.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Further days of action can be named in advance. Half-days of action can be called and tied to specific events which put pressure on the government such as lobbies of MPs and government offices or regional demonstrations. As long as it is tied to, and not a substitute for national action, members could be called out selectively in particular areas. School closures always hit the news because of the effect on industries and services which depend on working parents. The government may feel they can take the occasional bad news day and the union may feel unable to call extensive national action but regular selective action can keep the focus on education in ways that cause much more trouble to Ministers.

Whatever the answers it is certainly time to start asking the questions. The ballot decision is good and all NUT members should work as hard as they can to get a good turnout and a huge yes vote. But at the same time we need to develop a strategy which can win and persuade people it can be delivered as soon as possible.

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