Steve Charles (NUT rep from Stratford Academy, where teachers have struck for nine days against pay management’s use of pay cuts to intimidate staff out of striking) spoke at the second conference of the Local Associations Network (LAN) in Leicester on 8 December.
LAN is a rank-and-file school workers’ caucus based mainly in the National Union of Teachers. Delegates discussed the joint NUT/NASUWT campaign on workload, including how to escalate and spread disputes so individual reps and school groups are not left isolated.
The conference also held a Skype link-up with activists from the Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, the grassroots network which led the Chicago Teachers’ Union to a significant victory over the summer.
For a full report of the conference, see tinyurl.com/lanconf2012
