Sheila Caffrey, NEU Executive member (personal capacity)
The Executive Committee of the National Education Union (NEU) met on 11 July, just days into the new government.
General secretary Daniel Kebede reported that he had met with the new Labour education secretary Bridget Phillipson, along with other education unions. He said that while there was some ‘positive’ discussion around recruitment and retention, this was ‘mainly just an intro’.
We’re all delighted to see the back of the Tories. But given Keir Starmer’s declaration that he is not going to give the unions what they are asking for, and chancellor Rachel Reeves stating that the Labour government will stick to Tory spending plans, this suggests there is not going to be much increased funding to fill the black hole in most schools, nurseries and colleges, or to look at pay. Labour’s manifesto did promise to recruit 6,500 teachers, but 33,000 are actually needed.
Poll of teachers
So, what is the NEU to do? Daniel Kebede said the main thing was to build for the ‘snap poll’ of teachers already planned for September. Support staff had a successful indicative ballot before Easter, and have been consulted over the last few weeks on whether to accept what was offered by the Tories on local government pay. The result was 92% ‘reject’ on a 49.5% turnout – and that was with no major campaign by the union.
The Executive will meet after the government announces the teacher pay deal, which usually happens in the first week of the school holidays.
The union’s main strategy this year has been ‘lighting fires’ locally – ie building action in individual workplaces. There have been 137 formal ballots since January, as well as 250 requests for indicative ballots since September.
‘Light the fires’
Socialist Party members on the Exec fully back all these disputes, and the number of them shows a real determination to fight. But we also believe that this strategy can be difficult to maintain on its own. There is the risk of members feeling isolated and under attack from local management. And many of the most important issues cannot be fully won at a local level – on pay and funding for example.
This is why we need a national fightback. In our view, while the Tories were pushed back by our fantastic strike action in 2023, we could have won more. We will have to re-engage all members and show them that the union leadership is serious about fighting and winning.
We must place clear demands on the new Labour government that unite members, and prepare a serious national campaign strategy.
Support staff
The largest area of NEU membership is teachers in state schools. However, support staff are 14% of NEU membership, with an additional 20,000 in the last four years. Many joined the NEU when it was seen as a fighting union, so it is important that the union fights for support staff.
There are at least 300,000 support staff not unionised, with the rest in four different unions: Unison, Unite and GMB, as well as NEU. Keir Starmer has stated that the NEU would still not have a seat at the negotiating table, despite it probably being the second biggest union for support staff, as the TUC doesn’t recognise us for national bargaining rights for support staff.
At last year’s NEU conference, it was agreed to campaign for recognition for support staff. However, at July’s meeting, the majority of the Exec endorsed a move towards joint membership with Unite or Unison.
But suggesting members pay money to two unions does not deal with the main issue, which is that support staff need to be in a fighting trade union. We should continue to campaign for the NEU to be a fighting union for all its members, and at the same time aim to build strong relations with sister unions, including at a local level. This could encourage members in other unions to put the pressure on their leaderships.
A group of MPs that support us
At the Exec, Socialist Party members proposed that the union should aim to establish a parliamentary group of MPs who would champion NEU policies, which would aid our industrial fightback. As a first step in that direction, we raised the idea of approaching left MPs – Labour MPs such as John McDonnell and Diane Abbot, plus Jeremy Corbyn, the Greens and independents – as well as the likes of former NEU president Amanda Martin, now a Labour MP, to ask them to table an amendment to the King’s Speech to immediately increase funding to education. Unfortunately, this was not agreed.
