Statement by Socialist Party members on Unison’s national executive council and local government service group executive, and the National Education Union’s national executive.
Over one million public sector workers in education and health are balloting for national strike action in their fight for a decent pay rise, which could see the biggest public sector strike since 2011.
This action could also be a springboard for united public sector action to defeat the new round of austerity proposed by the Tories, with around £40 billion of cuts being drawn up by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
A campaign to defeat this will need the maximum unity of unions across all the public sector.
School ballots
The National Education Union (NEU) has begun a ballot of its 450,000 members, having just delivered its biggest ever indicative vote for strike action.
With other teaching unions NASUWT and NAHT also balloting, this could see every school in England and Wales shut in the new year if the government refuses to move on pay and school funding.
Unfortunately, Unison and GMB members voted to accept the NJC pay award for their school support staff and local government members, because their respective leaderships did not campaign to reject the employer’s offer, in contrast to other unions that did.
In those areas where Unison branches made a strong call and campaigned for rejection, there were big votes for action. This shows that on the ground there is little difference among school support staff, who want a fight on pay but need a fighting union to organise them.
There is now a real danger that instead of Unison preparing a fighting strategy on pay and the real threat of further job losses alongside other workers, as it is doing in the health service, in schools it is creating workplace division.
No to workplace division
The Unison leadership has complained to the TUC, alleging the NEU has broken a TUC agreement, because they have “written to the secretary of state in England demanding that there is adequate funding to fund the pay rises for teachers and support staff”, and “issued leaflets and posters which explicitly encouraged school support staff to join the NEU”.
It is the case that the NEU general secretaries did sign an agreement with the TUC not to actively recruit support staff, nor seek recognition in the NJC pay talks.
The NEU says that it has abided by this agreement.
That doesn’t stop workers choosing a union that they perceive to be the best fighter for their interests in any workplace, whether they are recognised for bargaining purposes or not. The NEU has gained 20,000 new support staff members since its formation.
A formal agreement between general secretaries, whether it is brokered by the TUC or not, will not prevent NEU school support staff members demanding to be included in action to fight on pay, job cuts or improvements to their working lives.
This will especially be the case when teachers in their union and in their school are taking action for the same things. It will also not stop NEU activists demanding the NEU leadership ends the formal agreement with Unison and the other NJC trade unions and seeks NJC recognition.
United front
When workers are fighting to defeat the the Tory government they rightly deserve the maximum unity from all trade unions. That is why many Unison and NEU members will be shocked to hear that the Unison leadership is risking workers’ unity in the workplace.
The Unison leadership has not only complained to the TUC alleging that the NEU has broken this TUC agreement, but it has asked all its branches to write to every employer stating that they are suspending cooperation with the NEU.
Given the massive school cuts that are looming, it would be a serious mistake to threaten the united front that will be needed by education unions to face down the Tories’ austerity offensive. The headteachers’ union, NAHT, has announced it will be organising a national industrial action ballot over pay and school funding.
Instead of taking measures against the NEU, Unison members would want to see a major campaign of action for funding our schools to cover our pay rise.
We need maximum unity not division. If not, the failure to organise a fight on all the key issues school support staff face could backfire.
Therefore, we call on Unison to withdraw the letter.
We appeal to both unions that a joint meeting of Unison and NEU NEC and sectoral executives be urgently set up to resolve the issues.
Unison should give its full support to the NEU’s fight for its members, as well as approach all the public sector unions to draw up plans for a united fight against the new round of austerity.
Unison NEC members (in a personal capacity):
April Ashley, Naomi Byron, Jim McFarlane, Hugo Pierre
Unison Local Government SGE members (in a personal capacity):
Mark Evans, Angela Waller
NEU NEC members (in a personal capacity):
Sheila Caffrey, Louise Cuffaro, Nicky Downes, Sean McCauley, Steve Scott
