The Socialist 17 October 2007

National Health Service: cutbacks and privatisation kill

National Health Service Cutbacks and privatisation kill

National NHS demo

The vultures are circling ever closer

10,000 march in Sussex

Swansea fights the cuts

Rally for Socialism

Exposing Royal Mail's lies

Postal workers waiting to assess Royal Mail deal

Fighting Royal Mail management's attacks

Solid unofficial action in East London

National Shop Stewards' Network meetings

Daylight robbery in Scotland!

Save Bolsover Post Offices

Brown's blues

Students on trumped-up charges

Scrap fees for all students

Young workers and students need to get involved

"You've got to stick together"

Stop the placement rip-off now!

Tony Benn evades the issue

Trade Union Freedom Bill: Banishing Thatcher's anti-union legacy?

Working longer hours for less pay

ITV2 - making a good deal out of women's bodies

Workers' struggle and political instability sends Polish government into meltdown

Australia: Liberals v Labour - no choice for working people in election

Children's homes at risk of buy-outs

Previous issues, etc

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National Union of Teachers

Working longer hours for less pay

Figures released from the government show that primary teachers work 51.5 hours a week – up from 50.1 hours last year. Special school teachers' hours have gone up from 43.9 to 45 hours. And secondary teachers' hours have only been marginally reduced from 49.1 to 48.7 hours.

Linda Taaffe

And we are getting less pay! The proportion of classroom teachers holding management allowances is down from around 51% to 43%. 30,000 less teachers hold responsibility points.

Now the government tell us, along with all other public-sector workers that we can only have a 2% increase over the next three years. That would mean five years with below-inflation increases.

At the October meeting of the NUT national executive, there was a chance to take a bold decision to ballot and take action alongside other public-sector workers.

Local government workers in Unison are balloting for action; civil servants in PCS too. Post office workers have been on strike over pay and privatisation. Why not join forces to fight a common grievance?

Unbelievably a sizeable majority of our leadership rejected this call. What a missed opportunity! Teachers need to show they are not prepared to just accept this situation.

In this issue

National Health Service Cutbacks and privatisation kill