PCS and NUT may strike on different days
Unbelievably, it looks as if the pay strikes by civil servants (PCS) and teachers (NUT) in November could be on different days.
The NUT's ballot begins on 6 October, and the PCS's on 24 September. Under the current laws, a ballot mandate for industrial action has to be activated within 28 days, or it lapses; at the same time, however, there's a minimum time (notice to the employer, and so on) between a union getting a ballot mandate and organising a strike.
The current word is that the NUT's strike will be between 19 and 27 November (and legally cannot be earlier than the 19th); the PCS's strike will be in the middle of November (and legally cannot be as late as the 19th).
AWL activists in the two unions are pressing the leaderships to seek modifications and workarounds to get the action synchronised (almost certainly, there are some possibilities).
How the foul-up happened is a mystery. Both unions now have "left" Executive majorities and top full-time officials. Both union leaderships make a big deal of wanting united action by public sector workers against the Government's wage-cut plans.
To organise the two ballots to allow joint action, in any case, the union leaderships did not have to be specially left-wing - just minimally competent. But that's "left-wing union leaderships" for you, these days.
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The strike and the new issue of "The Teacher"
I got the new issue of the NUT mag "The Teacher" yesterday. It registers that the ballot is for "discontinuous action", but then describes it as a ballot on one-day strike action in November.
It does not say in so many words that there will be no further action after November, but it strongly implies it. It certainly doesn't raise the possibility of any further action.
Also, it says nothing about unity with PCS.
What's going on? I thought the left was meant to be influential in the NUT leadership now.
The left in the NUT is very
The left in the NUT is very much a relative term. There is a very slight majority of the left if you include the CDFU- many of whose executive members voted against having a discontinuous ballot for strike action last time (when we only had a ballot for pone day action) and voted against a ballot for he summer term.
We can and should work with the CDFU of course and even with any who want to see a member led union. Even some in the STA are I think too timid and accomodate to the CDFU. But the strategy for getting a democratic union should not depend exclusively on the left getting a mjority of leadership positions- even when this happens many turn out to not be particualrly left at all anyway.
We need work-based rank and file committees and local town based cross-union committees and to decide policies bu mass meeeings of members and to get a proper rank and file movement established.
Legal constraints
The legal constraints are that unions must give seven days' notice to employers after a ballot and before a strike, and that a ballot mandate must be activated within 28 days.
The easiest way round the foul-up would be for PCS simply to extend its ballot period (currently due to end on 17 October) by a week. We've heard talk that this may cause legal difficulties, but that is not at all certain.
Even without the extension, simultaneous action is possible. PCS can "activate" its ballot mandate by starting an overtime ban or work to rule within 28 days, and call its first strike longer than 28 days after its ballot closes. The DTI guidance on the matter is explicit about this.
If PCS doesn't do that, its latest possible strike date is 15 November (28 days after 17 October). But NUT's ballot closes on 3 November. Theoretically NUT could strike on 11 or even 10 November. In other words, there are four days leeway for the NUT to make the strike simultaneous, even if PCS is uncooperative.
Basically, the only way the strike can fail to be simultaneous is if both union leaderships foul it up.
Deadlines
A union can also seek an agreement with the employer to extend the 28-day deadline.