Camden TAs on the picket line (pic: Guy Smallman)
Teaching assistants (TAs) in Camden, north London, are showing how workers can fight back against low pay.
TAs at two primary schools in Camden, north London, took to picket lines last week in their battle to be raised from level 3 to level 4 on the pay scale.
The Unison union members at Richard Cobden and Primrose Hill schools were out together for the second time in what has become a significant dispute with Camden council.
They walked out on Monday and were set to continue striking until Friday and Thursday, respectively.
However, due to the red alert heat warning, only Primrose Hill primary school remained open by the end of the week.
Despite soaring temperatures, the spirits on the picket line were untempered.
TAs received support from other workers at the school. An early years practitioner told Socialist Worker, “I wanted to show the strikers my support and stand with them on the picket line because I want them to win. “They are so important to the running of the school. Teachers can’t do their job without them,” she added.
Other schools in the borough have already been regraded.
One TA on the picket line said that their school’s refusal to do the same made them feel “devalued”.
Teaching assistants support children with specialist educational needs and disabilities (Send) and help deliver lessons.
“It takes skill to do the work we do every day in classrooms. The idea that agency staff can come in and do as good a job as us is very disrespectful,” she said.
Schools have faced years of underfunding. Workloads have risen and TAs are asked to do more with less pay.
Another TA told Socialist Worker, “I’ve worked here for 20 years. What I would have liked to have seen is for the headteacher to back us.
“Why isn’t he going to the council and trying to figure out a way to fix this?” she asked.
She said a proposal to get by with agency staff, “misunderstands how best to support and educate children.
“Having permanent staff is good for the children because you build trust and relationships. We have the experience and understand their needs.”
If the TAs win, it can have a wider impact. Every victory against cuts strengthens the confidence of other workers to fight back.
That is why solidarity matters. Parents, teachers and local residents all have a stake in defending the TAs who help keep schools running.
Camden teaching assistants are drawing a line in the sand. Stand with the workers and help build support for the strike.
NEU union members at St Paul’s Way Trust School, in Tower Hamlets, east London, walked out on Monday in a dispute over a proposed restructure.
Bosses’ plans would result in pay cuts and redundancies, as well as an increased workload for teachers.
In the morning, there were more than 80 people on the picket line.
The pickets chanted “No more cuts, no more lies, education must rise!”
Since the union has taken action, its membership has already risen to 130.
Local MP Apsana Begum and NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede, both brought solidarity to the striking workers on the picket line.
Some workers stayed for a second picket, in the afternoon, which was held because the school was hosting a science conference.
Strikers held up signs reading, “No to using teacher pay rises and inflation as an excuse for the black hole.”
The workers will be out next Tuesday and Wednesday, with a further three days of strikes to follow.
NEU union members at Woodfield, a special educational needs and disabilities (Send) school in Brent, west London, are set to return to the picket lines on 2-3 July.
They’ve already struck this year for 13 days, with eight further days to follow.
The dispute rose because of management’s move to “fire and rehire” support workers at the school.
Compass Learning Partnership has made 47 lead learning assistants redundant.
Management are trying to force the workers to accept a reduction in their working week of 3.5 hours. This would represent a £4,000 pay cut.
Educators at the Connaught School for Girls, in Waltham Forest, east London, have suspended a strike planned for 1-3 July.
The educators are in a long running dispute with management over pay and conditions.
Three workers at the school have been made redundant and NEU activists at the school have been facing victimisation.
The workers have been out on strike for several weeks since 21 April.
The strikes have been called off because progress has been made in talks with management. More strikes are still on the agenda if talks fail.
Workers in hospital operating theatres in Greater Manchester struck for 24 hours last week and were set to walk out again on Thursday for 48 hours.
There were strikes at Salford Royal, Rochdale Infirmary, Royal Oldham and Fairfield General hospitals.
The action by Unison members is part of a long-running dispute centred on overtime payments at the giant NHS trust, the Northern Care Alliance.
Nurses, clinical support workers and housekeepers are furious that bosses have slashed their overtime pay.
And they are demanding that staff working bank shifts —casual shifts that cover staffing gaps— for the NHS Professionals agency are paid the proper rate.
A similar dispute at the trust involves Unison members working in clinical care, and it is possible that in the future both groups of workers could strike together. Workers in other departments have contacted the union saying they want to join the fight too.
Operating theatre workers at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust on Monday began the second week of a 14-day strike.
The Unison union members are angry at being paid at the band 2 rate—the lowest on the NHS pay scale—despite performing many clinical duties.
Unison branch chair John Ingleson told Socialist Worker, “Our members are upset and frustrated, but still highly determined.
“They see colleagues in neighbouring hospitals paid as a Band 3.
“But here in Leeds where more complex surgery is performed, our members remain bizarrely on Band 2.
“They only get Band 2, while doing Band 3 work—and nobody can legitimately explain that contradiction.”
Operating theatre workers across Bedfordshire walked out for two days last week also in a fight over overtime payments.
Nurses, practitioners and surgery staff in the Unison union mounted picket lines at hospitals in Bedford, Luton and Dunstable.
A lively group of around 50 health workers at East London Foundation NHS Trust demonstrated outside the bosses officers against the compulsory redundancy of Mark Dunne, the most senior Unite union rep there.
The demo was a great show of support by staff for Mark.
A Unite member on the demonstration explained, “Cuts have been devastating across the Trust. Whole wards have been closed, and teams decimated.
“We’re scarcely able to deal with mental health emergencies now.”
Trade union victimisations in the NHS are increasing.
Unite are now in official dispute with the trust.
By Dr Kambiz Boomla
Around 400 Unite union members at Scarborough’s Alexander Dennis coach factory—formerly known as Plaxtons—struck last Thursday over the company’s 4 percent pay offer.
The coach builders are out on strike again from Monday of this week.
The first industrial action at the site for nearly 30 years followed a ballot that saw 81 percent vote in favour of strikes on an impressive 80 percent turnout.
Prices have risen by over 35 percent since 2021, while wages at Alexander Dennis have increased by only 15 percent.
It leaves workers with about a fifth less spending power than five years ago.
Unite convenor Alex Sheader said, “The company’s not negotiated with us at all since November. The membership have had enough.
“The cost of living crisis means we have no choice but to take action.”
The picket line was good-humoured, lively and well-attended, with strikers getting enthusiastic support from passing traffic.
Striker Kyle Myerscough told Socialist Worker he was confident about the outcome. “I can’t see the company winning,” he said. “They know they’re wrong and it’s just a matter of time.”
Unite regional officer Dan Stephens agreed the mood was solid. “There are no wavering voices. What we need now is the company to come back with some movement and guarantees.”
By John Atkinson
The University of Exeter is among the latest institutions to announce a wave of mass lay-offs that will damage it beyond repair.
The university told over 500 workers last week that they are at risk of redundancy.
Overwhelmingly, these workers are based in the humanities and social sciences. Their loss would pose an existential threat to teaching in English, history and politics and unique courses like Kurdish studies.
Last week, workers faced the excruciating wait to find out whether they would get an email telling them they are at risk.
The UCU union says the cuts are unnecessary. Exeter has never had a budget deficit and bosses’ pay is out of control. The union branch says it will ballot members for strikes.
Meanwhile, UCU members at Goldsmiths, in London, are taking on management’s plans for cuts with an ongoing indefinite strike.
Picket line activities were called off last week due to the extreme heat but are back on this week.
Workers at the University of Nottingham are also set to strike until the end of July. And at the University of Edinburgh and at London Metropolitan University, UCU members are boycotting marking and assessment in opposition to job cuts.
At the Glasgow Caledonian University, EIS‑ULA union members are set to strike this Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and for further dates in August and September.
The workers overwhelmingly voted for action to demand the university rules out compulsory job cuts.
Branch secretary Nick McKerrell said, “The proposed loss of 100 jobs at Glasgow Caledonian University and senior management’s refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies has provoked fury across campus.
“On top of that a costed plan put forward by trade unions to avoid these cuts was rejected out of hand.”
Sign the petition against planned redundancies at Exeter, tinyurl.com/Exetercuts
College workers in the UCU union are set to ballot for action across England from October.
They face stagnating pay and rising workloads that have led to an exodus of workers from the sector.
There is also a political attack from the far right. Reform UK’s mayor of Lincolnshire wants to scrap English for speakers of other languages—Esol—courses.
The union’s further education committee agreed last Friday to start a ballot across colleges over pay, workload and national bargaining.
The aggregated ballot means all colleges could walk out together.
An alternative proposal to delay the ballot for a year was not successful.
Unison union members in Tower Hamlets, east London, are set to strike over pension cuts. The workers are administrators and housing officers.
Management wants to move workers onto a pension scheme that would leave them thousands of pounds worse off in retirement.
Some 100 percent voted to strike on a 95 percent turnout.
Unless the bosses back down in talks this week, the strike will go ahead from Wednesday to Friday this week and next week.
The workers were told that their current pension scheme would be protected when they transferred from Tower Hamlets Council to East End Homes in 2002.
The changes could force them to work for longer to maintain a retirement income they thought was secure.
Avanti West Coast train station workers at Manchester Piccadilly station struck last Saturday and plan to strike again this Saturday.
Management has failed to address their concerns over a series of anonymous targeted complaints against a group of the workers.
RMT union regional organiser Steve Shaw said, “Our members at Manchester Piccadilly have had enough of what they see as a heavy‑handed and unjust process based on anonymous allegations and a fishing expedition to find grounds for disciplinary action.”
Workers are determined to defend their colleagues and send a message that workplace investigations must be conducted fairly.
Workers At Britain’s largest Exam Board, AQA, are preparing for a summer of action. Over a million students sit AQA exams every year, with 1,400 workers processing more than half of all GCSE and A Level qualifications.
Laura, a member of the Unison AQA branch, told Socialist Worker that strikes scheduled for this week had to be called off. But there are plans to escalate their fight for pay restoration.
“July is our best chance at winning. I can’t understate how big a disruption even a single day of strike causes.
“AQA has a strict deadline so that people can get their exam results on time. If they miss these they can be hit with a massive fine from Ofqual,” said Laura.
“We need to increase the pressure on them.”
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