Delegates vote to keep up pressure over pensions

NUT conference: Delegates vote to keep up pressure over pensions

DELEGATES TO the National Union of Teachers (NUT) annual conference
were determined to press home the retreat that had been inflicted on the
government over public-sector pensions.

Ken Smith

Delegates agreed to prepare for strike action on pensions. A campaign
of industrial action on workload and teachers’ hours, salaries and
conditions, including strike action, was agreed to extract major
concessions from the government.

Most teachers attending the conference were buoyed up by the retreat
that the threat of co-ordinated industrial action had forced on the
government. But they also knew that the government was buying time and
would be back with further attacks.

The priority motion from the NUT executive on pensions argued that
the government’s climbdown came about through co-operation in
negotiations by the public-sector unions.

But, as Lewisham delegate and Socialist Party member Martin
Powell-Davies made clear when moving the main amendment to the executive
motion, it was the threat of co-ordinated strike action which persuaded
the government to climb down.

The amendment stated that "the union will ballot for industrial
action unless there is a withdrawal of all proposals to worsen teachers’
pensions."

Martin pointed out that pensions secretary Alan Johnson had initially
said the increase in the public-sector retirement age had been
"non-negotiable". Clearly the government had taken a big step
back. "But we have to wait and see how far this step will be".

Martin said it was the outcry from below and the way union members at
local level united to put pressure on the NUT leadership to link all
areas in national action that had added to the pressure on the
government, rather than skilful negotiations. The amendment called for
decisions about future action to involve the divisional secretaries of
the NUT, as well as the national executive and the officers of the
union.

Martin concluded that whilst "the unions had won round one, they
had to get ready to win the whole fight". The NUT’s contribution to
that, he argued, would be to prepare for a ballot for discontinuous
action and ensure that the union took action on the same day as other
public-sector unions.

Such was the strength of feeling at the conference that although the
NUT leadership privately say they are ready to trust the government in
negotiations, they accepted the amendment which was passed unanimously.