Teachers vote for more action, but must escalate

Striking teachers on 15 March in London. NEU members want more action (Picture: Guy Smallman)

Tens of thousands of teachers have overwhelmingly thrown out the Tories’ pay offer and plan to strike on 27 April and 2 May—and then further days later. NEU union members voted by 98 percent on a 66 percent turnout to reject it, more than voted to strike in the first place in England.

As the result was announced at the NEU national conference in Harrogate on Monday, delegates chanted, “Come on Gill, pay the bill.” Tory minister Gillian Keegan promised a one-off payment of £1,000 and 4.5 percent but to fund only 0.5 percent of it—meaning cuts to already underfunded school budgets.

Teacher Rebecca Cann told Socialist Worker, “The union has unequivocally expressed its outrage at the disgusting offer from this government. There is a growing strength among our members and within the working class to take on grotesque wealth inequalities.”

On Tuesday NEU leaders moved a conference motion calling for strikes on 27 April and 2 May, a reballot from 15 May, and then further strikes for three days in “late June/early July”.

Emma Rose, for the national executive, said, “We are more ­organised, more galvanised than ever before. Our members are angry and rightly so.

“We have been successful because we have taken members with us. From 15 May onwards we are engaging with parents and communities to apply serious political pressure.”

But other delegates wanted more action to build the pressure, and opposed an almost two-month gap between the 2 May strikes and the next ones.

Speaking for an amendment that called for additional strikes, Paul McGarr, a delegate from Tower Hamlets, said he would “take no lectures from Keegan or anyone else about not caring about students”.

And he argued, “It’s the government that does not care because of its underfunding of education.” He added, “It’s important we have a serious plan. There’s a problem with the executive position. It is a lowering of pressure on government.”

Jess Edwards, a member of the national executive, spoke for the amendment and added, “The amendment says to the government we are coming for you and we’re coming hard. We have momentum and members on our side.”

But Phil Clarke for the national executive opposed the amendment and criticised it for “putting in nine days of strikes”. He denied there would be a loss of momentum.

Unfortunately, the amendment calling for extra strike days was defeated, with about 20 percent of delegates voting for it. Leigh Seedhouse, NEU national executive member, told Socialist Worker, “We must continue to put pressure on the government through escalating our industrial action over the coming terms.”

Make no apologies for strikes

The media and the Tories want to demonise teachers for the decision to launch more strikes. Everyone who wants to see a breakthrough in the strike battles needs to reject the attacks and support the teachers’ action.

There is nothing wrong with fighting against pay cuts imposed by a government that showers money on the rich and the corporations. Workers should not apologise for demanding that their pay at least keeps up with inflation—and that deals ought to begin the process of recovery from previous wage cuts.

The strikes are also in favour of education and students. Just as in the NHS, plummeting pay and soaring workloads leads to an exodus of workers.

Strikes cause a crisis in schools for a short period. But the lack of education funding means a crisis every day. Union leaders should not be defensive about action that causes turmoil and might hit exams.

Tory education secretary Gillian Keegan said the decision to call more strikes would “simply result in more disruption for children and less money for teachers”.

She threatened that the original, rotten, offer would be withdrawn, talks ended and that pay would now be decided by the independent pay review body. That means there has to be escalation, not compromise with an anti‑worker government.

Nine months since the new era of more strikes began, workers need to see clear victories. This would be the best way to encourage more action.

The NEU, and all the unions involved in battles, need to unite and escalate the fightback, not peddle bad deals that accept below‑inflation deals.

Build from rank and file

NEU union members have elected anti-racist and socialist campaigner Daniel Kebede as the union’s new general secretary. Kebede won 69 percent of the vote over his right wing rival Niamh Sweeney.

The vote was undoubtedly boosted by NEU members’ experience of strikes and the relish for action. It’s positive that Kebede, who Socialist Worker supported, has won.

But the key issue is to build the networks of resistance at the base of the union. These can generate more struggle and carry through the fight over pay, workload, testing and other issues.

The strike committees that workers have set up in some areas need to be developed urgently. They can involve more people, including new activists and those from outside the formal union structures.

And they can be the site of discussions about how to confront any backsliding by those at the top of the union.