Annabel Griffiths, Delegate from Bristol at support staff conference
I attended the National Education Union (NEU) support staff conference. It was the most well-attended of its kind and an empowering weekend to attend.
In March, 1,200 delegates at a special NEU conference voted to begin recruiting unorganised school support staff. An indicative ballot of 70,000 support staff members returned a big vote for action on pay and funding. But following complaints from other support staff unions, the NEU National Executive voted to pause recruitment and to not ballot support staff on a national basis. Socialist Party members opposed this.
General secretary Daniel Kebede stopped by the conference and I was able to ask him when we would be able to link the 70% increase in local support staff action to a national struggle, and have a national support staff ballot to win on pay, funding and to push back on job creep – issues that we are all at the forefront of!
He replied that this was unrealistic as we need to continue improving our relationship with other unions so we can build numbers. Unfortunately this shows his lack of confidence in the power of collective support staff action. Putting up a strong fight and appealing to other unions to work together at all levels is the best way to strengthen all of our fights. The rest of the weekend, however, showed this potential power.
Conference voted to take a motion on recruitment of support staff to annual conference. The motion called for the union to “promote local organising and ballots involving support staff”, and “commence national campaigns”. Yet again, support staff members have proved that we want and need to continue to build and grow our membership in order to fight and win on the issues that affect us every day.
