The Socialist 4 March 2008

No pay freeze: Unite for a living wage

Unite for a living wage

Greenwich workers score victory against single status

Angry civil servants strike over pay

Thousands protest at threats to hospital

Rewarded for zeal at cuts

Derby health workers

Fight for a woman's right to choose

DEMONSTRATE

$3 trillion Iraq war

Sheffield activists fight militarism

Walthamstow 'RAPpers' against toxic incinerators

Housing association collapses

Meet Brown's new finance expert

Fans blow whistle on Game 39

Campaign to Defeat Fees

Swansea - no sign of Griffin!

Turkey's invasion destabilising region

Russian election

EU war with super-rich?

Pensions under attack

Unison witch-hunt: Members bite back

Teachers must reject real pay cuts

Greenwich workers fight attacks

Socialist Party member stands for Unite (T&G) general executive

Previous issues, etc

Print this issue




Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/523/3862

Google search the site	Printable version	email to friend

Home | The Socialist 4 March 2008 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Bookshop

Teachers must reject real pay cuts

DURING THIS month, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is organising a national strike ballot. This gives teachers across England and Wales the chance to stand firm together, to make clear we're not going to sit back and see our salaries cut, our workload get ever harder and our schools further divided by tables, targets and privatisation.

Martin Powell-Davies and Linda Taaffe

It has been over 20 years since teachers last took national action - two decades when conditions for staff, and our students, have been ground down by successive governments. It is time to say that enough is enough!

Don't be fooled by Gordon Brown's claims that our pay is keeping up with inflation. We've already had three years when our pay awards have fallen behind the Retail Price Index. No wonder many teachers are already beginning to feel the pinch.

Unless we act, teachers face three more years of real pay cuts. Bills will continue to rise - but teachers' pay won't keep step. The best way to make sure our complaints are noticed is to take united national strike action. So teachers must vote for it!

Like other workers, we watch the news about financial volatility and wonder how it will affect us, our own children and the pupils we teach. The big business 'masters of the universe' have reaped the dividends when the going was good.

Now that the market looks shaky they want to make workers pay. And they expect Gordon Brown and his New Labour government to do their bidding.

Hence Brown's demand to hold down public-sector pay. We say 'no way'. We have to fight back. We cannot afford not to. Teachers need a clear strategy to win. A key part of that is to bring together public-sector trade unions and take united joint action to win decent pay for all.

In this issue

Unite for a living wage