Education unions

Friday 12 June saw hundreds of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students, staff and supporters march in East London in protest at major cuts to ESOL announced at Tower Hamlets College. The (overwhelmingly female) student protesters led chants on megaphones, carried placards with their own powerful slogans, and spoke eloquently and emphatically to the national press about what ESOL means to them. Key messages were the need for English to allow them to support their children’s learning, so they can be a part of their communities and so they can work. These women have developed not...

The admin offices of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London were occupied from Monday 15 to Wednesday 17 June, in response to an immigration raid on SOAS cleaners. The raid was organised by ISS, the contractor for SOAS, and several cleaners were deported. The occupation ended with concessions from the SOAS administration. SOAS agreed to write to the Home Secretary asking for leave to remain for the cleaners not deported; to “discuss the possibility of” bringing cleaning in-house; to “acknowledge” UCU (lecturers’ union) policy of non-cooperation with immigration raids; and...

Industrial action over pay by the National Union of Teachers was one of the first casualties of the economic crisis. After winning a concrete mandate for action in a ballot, the union took a single day of action to demand the government meet a pay claim. When the union came to ballot for a second time, the turnout was lower and the majority in favour of action was paper thin. The dispute was called off. According to reports from activists, union members were expressing “reservations” — even embarrassment — about demanding higher salaries when so many others were having their pay cut and jobs...

If the Government puts out £1100 billion in cash, credit, and guarantees to the banks, as it has done, then someone is going to foot the bill. On current plans, both Tory and New Labour, it is public services and public service workers. A lot of the £1100 billion has been guarantees given on the principle that, if the guarantees are in place, they will never be called on. But a lot is actual loans or actual cash, to buy shares in the banks. The Financial Times summarises the results: “[Government] borrowing is set to rise to £175 billion a year, or 12.5% of national income... Public debt is...

Download the full bulletin below Teachers and the Crisis Pat Murphy, NUT Executive (personal capacity) Teachers are not yet at the cutting edge of the crisis. Workers in industry, the private service sector and some sections of the public services – including some of our colleagues in schools – are facing wage cuts, attacks on pensions and in some cases, large scale redundancies. But some elements of the crisis are already affecting teachers and we can expect this to intensify over time. Twelve months ago the NUT had a live national dispute over pay. The first and only day of strike action was...

Roundup of Union news in brief: Linamar, Tube, UCL, PCS TUBE: Drivers on the London Underground's Victoria line struck on 20 May to reverse the unjust sacking of driver Carl Campbell, a sacking which had just been upheld, and demand new safety equipment on the line.

By Ruth Cashman (Unison activist and participant in the March labour movement conference in Iraqi Kurdistan) The Iraqi Teachers’ Union is facing a vicious attack from the Iraqi Government. The Iraqi government has demanded that the leadership of the union hand over the keys to its headquarters, along with membership and other records, to a state body. The government has demanded the union holds a national election and that the current leadership are not allowed to stand for re-election. It is worth noting that the ITU has already held two national conferences since 2003, with a third emergency...

Activists from Nottinghamshire Stop the BNP returned to the streets in their campaign against the British National Party. Leafleting door-to-door in the Beeston area of Nottingham, a small group of anti-fascists found themselves on the same front steps as the BNP, who’d covered the area a short time before. The BNP material — a combination of glossy leaflets and a photocopied local newsletter — repeated the fascists core themes for the coming European and local elections: “Say to to EU rule”, “oppose mass immigration”, “house British people first”, “help pensioners not banks”. Wayne Shelbourn...

UNITE:  You might think the leaders of a union whose members occupied the Visteon factories and took wildcat strike action in engineering construction would be pre-occupied with struggle. Yet Derek Simpson, joint General Secretary of Unite and his supporters seem to spend much timein an unedifying turf war. The most telling part of this tussle was the leaking of details about Simpson obscene pay and perks to the bourgeois media. The red-faced Gen Sec responded not by giving up his bosses’ lifestyle but by starting a hunt for the leakers. Kevin Coyne, a candidate in the recent Joint General...

Lecturers at two thirds of higher education institutions face the real threat of losing their jobs. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) has said that 100 institutions are planning collective redundancies. While most of these 100 institutions have yet to go public, Liverpool University has announced eight of its forty five departments risk closure, Thames Valley has proposed shutting completely one of its four campuses, and one in four staff at London Metropolitan University face the sack. Reduced student funding in the area of health means nursing and health profession...