Support the Brighton and Hove teaching assistants

Strike against low pay

ON 6 January, teaching assistants in Brighton and Hove were set to
stage a fourth one-day strike over pay and conditions. [The strike was
subsequently called off.] The previous strikes closed more than 25
schools and 9,000 pupils had to be sent home.

Sean Figg, Brighton Socialist Party

The dispute developed after the council implemented a new pay
structure. The unions agreed to a new structure, in recognition of the
professional work the teaching assistants do. But when the council
realised this would mean increasing pay for the vast majority, they
decided to add ‘strings’ and cut the number of weeks the workers are
paid each year.

Teaching assistants are predominantly low-paid, part-time women
workers, many with children of their own. Their average take-home salary
is £9,000 per year.

Teaching assistants do specialised numeracy and literacy work and
work intensively with children with behavioural and learning
difficulties. Their invaluable role is shown by the number of schools
which had to close when they were on strike.

The teaching assistants are employed by Brighton and Hove city
council, who have treated them with contempt. On the first day of strike
action Ken Bodfish, the New Labour council leader, condemned the strike
as: ‘A very selfish act’. Yet when the strike rally was going on, the
council confirmed a salary of £145,000 for the council’s new Chief
Executive, Alan McCarthy, and voted themselves a 2.5% increase in
allowances.

Brighton and Hove council is led by New Labour. The teaching
assistants are represented by UNISON and the GMB unions. Their members
are starting to ask why both these unions give large sums to New Labour
whilst they fight a New Labour council.

The local newspaper The Argus has acted as the council’s
‘news-sheet’. Every article ends with the council’s position that their
teaching assistants are better paid than those in neighbouring
authorities and that the deal will see nine out of ten better off.
Neither the council nor The Argus ever quote figures when making these
claims.

There is a high level of support across the city, from parents,
teachers, other unions and the public generally. Pressure from below has
led both UNISON and the GMB to seriously consider escalating strike
action to other council workers.

Local bin workers have been threatening ‘wild-cat’ action since the
dispute began. As Paul Maloney, GMB senior public services officer for
the South East commented at a strike rally: "Laws are made to be
broken".

The teaching assistants in Brighton and Hove have showed tremendous
resolve and determination to win this dispute. Their actions are an
inspiration to low-paid, under-valued workers across the country. The
Socialist Party, locally and nationally, supports them 100%.