Support Rawmarsh strikers

Submitted by Matthew on 19 January, 2011 - 12:51

National Union of Teachers members at Rawmarsh Community School in Rotherham are taking discontinuous strike action over savage cuts in staff at the school.

Last term the Head and governors announced 30 redundancies — including 20 teaching staff — before April 2011. The threat of NUT action has reduced this number, and set redundancies back until July.

However teachers voted unanimously to strike to protect all the jobs.

The situation seems to be due to bad financial planning by the governors and LEA. But the redundancies at Rawmarsh will have a devastating affect on students’ education and well-being — larger class sizes, increased workload for teachers. And Rawmarsh school serves a community which suffered brutally at the hands of Thatcher and won’t see any sympathy from Cameron.

Now teachers are being put through a humiliating and demoralising procedure of a skills audit to assess who will face redundancy. Some feel they are being targeted for removal in an unfair and demeaning process.

But striking staff are organising a vibrant and democratic strike, with an active strike committee. Meetings are being held everyday to discuss latest developments and plan leafleting, publicity or rallies.

This strike is an inspiration to all those facing similar situations an example of solidarity. Striking staff have decided that the strike will not be divided by announcements of who is to be made redundant in their numbers.

Lessons can be learnt here for how to fight redundancies in schools because there are surely more on the way.

Send solidarity messages from individuals or branches to NUT rep ralphdyson@yahoo.co.uk

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