‘Our fight can’t wait!’
Louise Cuffaro, NEU Executive member (personal capacity)
Burnham has been crowned but education workers (teachers and support staff) cannot afford to pause the pressure.
Teachers and support staff are already being asked to wait until October for a strike ballot over pay and funding; action would not happen until sometime in the new year.
But ordinary workers in all nurseries, schools, colleges and universities – just like in the NHS, social and welfare services, and council housing – cannot wait any longer.
Our services are completely depleted, many are broken up and privatised, exploited by profiteering corporate outsourcers. Extortionate privately run special educational needs facilities drain state funding from ordinary schools and colleges, for example. Many school nurseries face closure because they are no longer ‘financially viable’.
The National Education Union (NEU) is one of the largest trade unions in the country and, together with other public sector unions, must build for action. Myself and other Socialist Party members on the union’s executive are arguing against those who think that we should ‘give the new prime minister time’ and ‘try to influence his thinking’. But what is more persuasive than the threat of national strike action in schools? Our ballot is still on!
Socialist Party members are fighting for the Trades Union Congress (TUC) to organise an Autumn weekend mass demonstration to defend public services and demand the funding we need. If the TUC fails to act, then a ‘coalition of willing’ trade unions should set the date.
Education workers are preparing for strike ballots, public sector workers in health, local authorities and the civil service are all fighting cuts and for fair pay, with Unite and Unison members in local government balloting too. A demo bringing those workers together could be used as a launch pad for future coordinated strikes.
New Labour prime minister Andy Burnham talks about keeping to Keir Starmer’s ‘fiscal rules’ designed to keep the capitalist bosses happy. Instead we need politicians and a party that serves ordinary working people and our trade unions.
There is loads of money in the system, it is just not in our hands, and it’s not being used for the benefit of the working-class majority.
There is no time to wait and see what crumbs Burnham will give us. It’s time for trade union action!
Join the NSSN lobby of the TUC in Brighton on 13 September.
