Alex Moore, Special Conference Delegate, Plymouth NEU, personal capacity
Against the background of a national indicative ballot to reject the government’s below-inflation and unfunded pay offer, spiralling workload and redundancies threatened in many schools, 1,200 delegates at a National Education Union (NEU) special conference voted overwhelmingly to begin recruiting unorganised school support staff and to withdraw from an agreement not to, signed with the TUC (Trades Union Congress).
This is a historic decision for the NEU, following complaints from the leaders of other unions that organise support staff and a fine levied by the TUC. Socialist Party members have consistently argued for maximum unity between unions, and for disagreements to be resolved through discussion and negotiation, not through complaints and sanctions.
The decision also opens a debate about how to build union strength. Two thirds of support staff in schools do not belong to any union. The NEU has seen significant increases in membership and its number of support staff members has tripled from 20,000 to over 65,000.
Workers join unions that they think will fight for them. At the height of the Covid outbreak, campaigning by the NEU – holding a Zoom meeting of half a million – forced then-prime minister Boris Johnson to U-turn on reopening schools. The NEU took national strike action in 2023.
Despite the unanimity of the final vote, conference did not decide lightly. Twelve amendments were submitted to the main motion in a serious debate weighing up the pros and cons, trying to get the balance right and maintain a principled stand.
Socialist Party member and elected National Executive member Sheila Caffrey spoke against an amendment which called for the NEU to not actively organise in schools where there is a rep from another union: “Our aim should always be to unite the widest layer of workers … If there is a good rep in a school – brilliant! We work with them… We must not poach members from other unions. But we also must not be timid about ensuring that every member of school staff has a strong voice in a strong union.” This argument was strongly supported and the amendment fell.
Annabel Griffiths, a member of Bristol Socialist Party, has just started work as a teaching assistant. Her speech was met with cheers as she explained it was urgent that the hundreds of thousands of school support staff facing poverty pay, term-time-only wages and not being able to find adequate housing, were in a union. “Workers are stronger when they fight together.”
There was much debate around the TUC. We believe that being part of the TUC gives a chance for over six million workers to organise collectively. For example, at TUC Congress last year the NEU spoke in favour of the TUC calling a national anti-austerity demo. Ending an agreement is not breaking with the TUC. We want the elected executives of the relevant unions to meet together to work out how we can collaborate.
The final motion agreed “to make it clear to the [other] unions that we will continue to seek to work collaboratively in the interests of the workforce, and will always be open to proposals for an amicable resolution of our disagreements.”
The special conference resolution did not come out of the blue. The policy was agreed at 2025 conference, and has taken nine years campaigning by support staff in the NEU. Socialist Party members on the exec have argued all along that support staff members expect their union to fight for them and voted against signing agreements to prevent that.
