| [Education For Tomorrow: No 95, 2008] Union conference season How will the teacher unions respond to the biggest attack since the start of state education? Apart from noting the peculiar timing of Easter this year, which means the teacher unions’ conferences will not take place during the Easter holidays, what else is of note? What will they be considering? Further, what outcome should progressives be seeking? The priority isn’t pay. When the history of education of this era comes to be written it will be crystal clear that the attempt to privatise the management of state education will be seen as the biggest attack on education and on teachers' pay and conditions since the start of state education. The unions need to lift their level of resistance to this, and to do so considerably and collectively. So far, in essence the government is getting away with it. Unions will need to look more closely at how they can take industrial action against the creation of Academies and trusts schools and how they can take direct action, as has been done against the proposed Academy on Wembley Park Sports Ground site and elsewhere. Pay On pay, Gordon Brown is planning to further reduce teachers' pay. Again, only determined and collective action will stop this. Teachers need to be educated to realise the longer they wait the worse it will get. Multi-year deals are just a device to hold down wages and government promises to meet trigger points and reviews are worthless, as witnessed last year when the Government refused to give a further increase when the agreed inflation trigger point was reached. The NUT is to ballot for action over pay, and hopefully — as last time over pensions — this will lead to the development of a united front. But there is much to play for and nothing is preordained. Partnership — who with? Our ongoing problem is the division that the government has succeeded in getting between the unions over the social partnership. Partnership with government and employers inevitably break down because their interests are not identical, indeed unions' existence is based on there being fundamentally different interests. This one has survived despite government determination to reduce pay and privatise the management of education. Only the NUT stands outside. However it has lasted five years now and shows no immediate sign of collapse. Progressives need to find ways to get greater talking and cooperation between the education unions and make use of the TUC to do this. It is obvious to the point of triteness that unity is strength. It is nevertheless profoundly true. There are many issues of clear common concern to the teacher unions — academies and privatisation, health and safety, testing etc. It should be possible to seek to get joint activity and actions. Asbestos removal One of the other issues for conferences is asbestos and the need to have it removed from all the educational premises. Motions calling for the government to agree to set a deadline and ensure its implementation (or us to act to ensure they do) by 2010 will be put. Asbestos has and is killing teachers and even more pupils. More pupils than teachers pass through schools and the young are more vulnerable. Michael Lees whose wife Gina was killed by asbestos has been a seminal figure in raising consciousness about this issue and not least we owe it to him and her to succeed in this. Faith schools An integral part of the fight to preserve state education is the clarity to oppose the move to have more faith schools. The NUT so far has failed in this regard. Its working party has received ample evidence to demolish the ‘faith schools are better schools’ nonsense and to show the dangers to social cohesion and to state education through their connection to Academies. At present the ATL is ahead of the NUT re: clarity on this issue with the NASUWT in between. Other issues that should be confronted at Conference include SATs and league tables. Only the government now supports this educational disaster area. Surely it is time to take action to finish them off? A question has been raised of action being illegal in this area. Needs must, a way round the law should be found, or teachers must act directly ensuring union funds cannot be jeopardised. Administrative overload and obsessive data collection should also be more straightforwardly tackled. Just say no! We've got a lot on our plate. Not getting down to it, getting stuck in, will only allow the tragic decline that both education and this country have suffered, to continue. It’s time to get stuck in. Hank Roberts |