From Workers' Liberty Teachers NUT conference bulletin 2007
Teachers at Colonel Frank Seely, following more than a year of campaigning and action by the NUT, have finally got their just desserts.
Management at the school were first pressured into ACAS and then, for the first time since the dispute began over a year ago, forced into real negotiations with a positive outcome.
Faced with significant pay cuts NUT members at the school, many not losing any money at all, stood shoulder to shoulder in the interests of those who were to lose the most.
Despite long periods where it seemed that all their efforts might be in vain the NUT teachers carried on a rolling programme of strike action. To their eternal credit they never lost heart despite feeling provoked and vilified on more than one occasion.
The Union nationally has given full backing to the members’ actions at every stage of the pay campaign and officers of the national union led the talks at ACAS alongside the Joint Division Secretary, Ivan Wels and the school representative, Julie Chaplain.
Notts NUT made a promise to all teachers in the county at the outset of the TLR restructuring. Wherever members faced pay cuts as a result of transferring from the previous Management Allowance pay structure, we would defend them if requested to do so.
And this is exactly what we have done at Colonel Frank Seely School. And with no official support from any other teaching union the NUT has now secured gains for all nineteen teachers losing out at the school, whether in the NUT or not.
In most cases of restructuring we did not need to take strike action on behalf of members - union involvement, alone, was sufficient. In about thirteen cases we had to go to an indicative strike ballot before our demands were met.
The case of Colonel Frank Seely school is unique in the county in that - alone amongst those schools where members were willing to take industrial action - no concessions whatsoever were forthcoming from the management at the school. Repeated failure to concede any ground, despite several concessions from the NUT, has been the primary cause of the extensive action that finally led to the breakthrough at ACAS.
So well done to all the NUT members at Colonel Frank Seely: you have been a shining example to all of why trade unionism is vital in the workplace and essential if justice is to prevail. Your determination to continue the action against the odds is a lesson to the whole union about the importance of collective action if we are to see off this government’s damaging agenda. It is up to the national union to implement this approach countrywide in forthcoming struggles over pay and conditions
Liam Conway, Joint Secretary Notts NUT