Solidarity 089, 9 March 2006

It’s a class issue

On Thursday 23 February, Camden (north London) branch of the National Union of Teachers drew over 100 people to a public meeting against the Education White Paper. A branch of CASE, the Campaign for the Advancement of State Education, was set up from the meeting as a vehicle for a united campaign by teachers and parents against the Government’s plans. Disappointing in the meeting was the fact that none of the platform speakers — including Christine Blower, assistant general secretary of the NUT — went beyond denouncing the White Paper as “nonsense”, or said anything about how it could be...

We need a national fight back

By Becky Crocker The 2 March demonstration in Westminster against the Government's plans for schools, called by Ealing NUT, was about a hundred strong. Despite the poor turn out, activists from NUT, UNISON and other unions showed determination to defeat this bill. The demonstration was followed by a rally at Westminster Central Hall, where a number of speakers called for an end to selection and demanded high quality, publicly-funded and accountable local schools. The NUT's Deputy General Secretary Christine Blower advocated wholesale opposition to the bill, not a compromise with the government...

Good schools for all!

By Tom Unterrainer, Assistant Secretary Nottingham NUT (personal capacity) The publication of an Education White Paper last year commenced months of wrangling, negotiations and campaigning that has gone to the ideological heart of the Labour Party. MPs and party members lined up with education unions to denounce proposals to unleash rampant market-driven measures upon schools. Up and down the country local associations of the National Union of Teachers held protest meetings, Constituency Labour Parties debated the issue and internal groupings like “Compass” issued pamphlets denouncing the...

For an equal, living wage!

by Sally Lopez Much criticism of last month’s Women and Work Commission’s report on the “gender pay and opportunities gap” has focused on its failure to recommend compulsory equal pay audits for employers. This is no surpise. As long ago as September, the Guardian reported that the commission’s chair, ex-T&G bureaucrat Margaret Prosser, “rules out the mandatory equal pay reviews called for by the unions”. Heaven forbid that companies should be forced to do anything, and the hand-picked list of Blairite business, local government and right-wing trade union hacks that produced the report were...

Cottam power workers show meaning of solidarity

An all-out unofficial strike by workers at Cottam power station, between Nottingham and Lincoln, started in late February. Austrian company SFL, contracted by EDF Energy to build a desulphurisation plant at Cottam, hired both British and East European workers — from Hungary, Austria and Romania — but on different wages and conditions. As in the Irish Ferries dispute, this is a case of a multinational company moving workers around the EU to undercut wages. SFL hired British workers under the terms of the construction industry’s “Blue Book”, but others on different terms. Everyone was told not...

Union defeats pay cuts

By Pat Murphy, Leeds NUT The new pay structure for teachers affects those who take on extra responsibilities beyond their own class teaching, e.g. heads of departments, heads of year, key stage co-ordinators in primary schools etc. The old system meant that these people were on management allowances (MAs). A new system changes this to “teaching and learning responsibilites” (TLRs). All schools were required to review their entire staffing structure by 31 December 2005 to abolish MAs and move over to TLRs. This change is affecting the pay and pensions of thousands of teachers. Why? 1. There is...

Cut regions’ power

By an AMICUS member A CONSULTATION document has been issued to TGWU branch secretaries on the proposed TGWU/Amicus/GMB merger. The document describes those structures that the three unions have in common and puts them forward as the basis for merger. The idea is for a merger on the basis of minimal disruption to the bureaucratic status quo (bar the inevitable jockeying for position and scramble for early retirement deals that will follow amalgamation). At the centre of the proposed new structure stands the power of the regions. The regions are defined as providing for “effective lay member...

Pay strike and marking boycott begin

By Daniel Randall, NUS NEC (PC) On 7 March academic staff in higher education — members of NATFHE and the AUT — took strike action in support of their pay claim. The nationwide strike was well-supported. The unions have been engaged in a long-running battle with their employers over pay, which the unions say has been diminishing in real terms for years. According to TUC figures the average higher education worker does nine hours work per week unpaid. In money terms that amounts to £10,216 per year. After accepting a 3% increase on this year's pay deal (the year to July 2006), the AUT and...

Reinstate Ken Livingstone!

By Amina Saddiq Mayor of London Ken Livingstone’s suspension from office by the Adjudication Panel of the Standards Board of England has been “frozen” by the High Court pending an appeal. Whatever the final outcome, the issues posed for socialists and serious democrats are clear. As we have said many times before, Livingstone is not a left-wing, let alone a working-class, politician. His record, from “working closely” with London business to siding with the police against anti-capitalist protesters to calling for tube workers to cross RMT picketlines, speaks volumes. On the question in dispute...

Collision time for welfare?

By Colin Foster We may be approaching the point at which — given a lead by a sufficiently strong and weighty body of activists — the multiform discontent with the Blair-Brown government's drive to chop up the welfare state could be transformed into a campaign strong enough to change the social balance of forces. On 25 March two big campaign conferences will be held in London. The National Union of Teachers and other groups have called a conference on the Government's plans to convert all schools to a status similar to Academies; and the NHS Support Federation and others have a “SOS NHS”...

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