Education unions

National Union of Teachers (NUT), Association of University Teachers (AUT), National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) and other education unions

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The universities dispute after 2 March

The first two weeks of spring action by the University and College Union (UCU) saw solid action in many universities. But to win the pension and Four Fights disputes we need to escalate the disruption. Management want to ride this out. We need to make that impossible. On 22 February university bosses voted to confirm USS pension cuts. UCU members were furious, while Unison’s success in winning ballots means the possibility of shutting down campuses is now greater. We do not yet know what strategy UCU’s Higher Education Committee has decided on for the weeks after the current schedule of...

AWL bulletin for UCU and UNISON HE strikes, 28 February-2 March 2022

AWL Higher Education workers fraction have produced this bulletin for the UCU and UNISON HE strikes starting 28 February 2022. Please download and read - and distribute if you agree! Let us know what you think - email awl@workersliberty.org We have members in UCU and UNISON and hold regular meetings to discuss building a democratic, fighting rank and file across campus unions.

Transforming UCU: interview with Rhian Keyse

University and College Union activist and candidate for the union's national executive Rhian Keyse (above, far left) spoke to Josh Lovell and Sacha Ismail. (Update: Rhian was elected.) For a shorter version, published with the headline "Strike committees should decide", see the PDF of Solidarity 625 . I’m a precariously employed researcher at Birkbeck, University of London, and a UCU activist at both branch and national level. I’ve been involved in UCU since 2017; I’m Birkbeck branch secretary and co-chair of the national Anti-Casualisation Committee . I’ve been a UCU Congress delegate several...

Pensions strike is strong

On Thursday 10 February 1,500 teachers who are members of the National Education Union (NEU) in the private schools of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) struck to prevent their employers removing them from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. The strikes were very well supported, with lively picket lines outside all of the 23 schools. There was also a strong rally outside GDST headquarters in central London, after the picket lines. GDST management are clearly rattled, with many reports of them trying to intimidate individual pickets with pathetic complaints. The union has approached this dispute in...

NEU lacks urgency on pay

The Executive of the National Education Union (NEU) met on 10 February to consider the outcomes of a survey of members on pay which closed on 4 February. The key messages of the survey were that opposition to the pay freeze and support for our demand that all teachers should see an increase of 8% next year was almost unanimous, and over 70% of respondents were prepared to strike. The immediate issue confronted by the Executive was whether to plan for an indicative ballot for action. The view of the union leadership, comfortably endorsed by the Executive, was that we shouldn’t do that as the...

AWL bulletin for UCU and UNISON HE strikes, 14 February-2 March 2022

AWL Higher Education workers fraction have produced this bulletin for the UCU and UNISON HE strikes starting 14 February 2022. Please download and read - and distribute if you agree! Let us know what you think - email awl@workersliberty.org We have members in UCU and UNISON and hold regular meetings to discuss building a democratic, fighting rank and file across campus unions.

Strike in private schools

Teachers who are members of the National Education Union (NEU) in 23 private schools run by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) are set to strike against the employers’ plan to withdraw from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS). The formal ballot for strike action returned a 95% “yes” vote on an 84% turn-out easily exceeding the anti-union law thresholds, demonstrating the level of anger among members and the effectiveness of a well-organised and serious campaign by the NEU. The NEU has good density and a high number of reps in GDST. It is likely that the strikes will close many schools. The...

Private school teachers set to strike

On 6 December the indicative ballot of National Education Union (NEU) members who teach in the 23 “public” (i.e. private) schools run by the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) returned 93% yes for strikes on a 93% turnout. This sets us on course for a very significant strike. GDST is threatening to withdraw from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), the standard pension scheme for state-school teachers. The TPS is significantly better than private pension schemes GDST would buy in to. Some members could lose more than £20,000. Ironically for a company that claims it is about empowering women...

Louise Lewis victimised again

The National Education Union (NEU) workplace rep at North Huddersfield Trust, Louise Lewis, has been dismissed in an act of blatant anti-union victimisation. Louise was at the centre of a major dispute earlier this year when she was subjected to disciplinary allegations and suspended. Her union insisted that the allegations were an attack on her legitimate work as the school rep, especially her determination to ensure that Covid safety measures were properly followed. NEU members were balloted and voted to take sustained strike action to defend her. After several days on strike and a hearing...

Abolish GCSEs, turn the tide on toxic testing

Over the last ten years Workers’ Liberty school workers have been at the forefront of pushing the debate about testing in schools in the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and in its successor the National Education Union (NEU). In 2019 we wrote a motion passed at the NEU’s national conference which committed the union to an indicative ballot of members to boycott the statutory tests in primary schools. The ballot result was strong, but sadly not built upon. Last year, we wrote a motion, passed with amendments, that committed the union to call for the abolition of GCSEs. On 23 October Joint...

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