Sheila Caffrey, NEU executive member, personal capacity
At its March meeting, the National Executive of the National Education Union (NEU) voted to accept an agreement about support staff, signed with other unions that also have support staff members.
It reconfirms the agreement made with the TUC (Trades Union Congress) in 2017 when the NEU was formed, that the NEU “should take no action that could be regarded as organising activity on behalf of support staff without the explicit agreement of the NJC unions.”
As a result of that historic agreement, the NEU does not have recognition with the employers for the purposes of national pay bargaining. The unions that do – Unison, GMB and Unite – are known as the NJC unions.
But the vote on the exec was close. Myself and fellow Socialist Party member Louise Cuffaro were part of a substantial minority on the exec that voted against. 20 voted for, 14 against and 12 abstained (many on the basis that they thought the issue should go to conference to be decided).
There is fury among many support staff members and an urgent motion is now going to NEU conference in April, backed by a growing number of NEU branches. A lot of exec members had had emails from support staff in the run-up to the meeting.
The NEU has 60,000 support staff members. Many of these were already members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers when it merged with the National Union of Teachers to form the NEU. Many more have joined the NEU subsequently, especially during Covid and then the strike wave, because they saw the NEU as a fighting union.
In 2023, NEU conference passed a resolution to campaign for recognition for support staff. The NEU leadership could have gone into these talks with the other unions with that starting point, that all support staff need proper representation, and that the unions should all fight together. Yet they have signed an agreement that explicitly says “NEU will not pursue recognition”.
The new agreement talks a lot about the NJC unions consulting the NEU, and about unions campaigning together. But the NJC unions “will retain the responsibility to formulate the bargaining claim”. So what if NEU members disagree?
The ban on the NEU organising on behalf of support staff remains in place unless there is prior agreement with the other unions. It even states that NEU’s website and briefings have to be agreed with the other unions.
Of particular concern is a line in principle 7 that relates to local ‘whole school issues’. While encouraging collaboration, it appears to say that the principles in the whole document apply. Currently, the NEU organises and leads significant local battles of both teachers and support staff. What does this new agreement mean? Will the NEU nationally not sanction local action unless the other unions agree?
In the end, no agreement made at the tops of unions can dictate to workers how they fight back. But this agreement is an extra unnecessary hurdle, which support staff members of NEU are determined to fight against.
