SOCIALIST PARTY member Martin Powell-Davies is campaigning to stand as
general secretary of the National Union of Teachers (NUT).
He told the socialist: "The legacy of outgoing
general secretary McAvoy’s leadership is of failure. Ordinary teachers have
a deadening workload which has driven many of them out of teaching. Many
older teachers would like to take early retirement but now the government is
trying to block that.
"There’s under-funding, there’s a pay freeze,
there’s performance related pay, SATs, privatisation, management bullying.
There’s OFSTED, there’s teaching on the cheap. There’s so many issues
there’s huge discontent in the staff room.
"But many ordinary teachers are really angry that
the union has let them down.
And that’s why I’m standing to change the NUT union.
Teachers need to see there’s someone at the top of the union who’s actually
in touch with them, who understands what the problems facing teachers are
and is actually going to do something about them."
Martin is standing as a teachers’ leader on a teacher’s
salary, for an end to teachers’ excessive workloads and for the union to
organise effective action against performance pay and the pay freeze.
He’s also standing for a serious campaign to end SATs
and league tables and for unity in action against the government’s plans for
teaching on the cheap – for strike action to oppose unqualified staff taking
teaching posts and for decent pay and conditions for all education staff.
He’s also campaigning to defend the right to retire at
60 on a full pension.
To find out more about the campaign see the website:
http://elect-martin.tripod.com
email: [email protected]
tel: 07946 445488
