Stop press! School staff demand action on pay and testing at NEU conference

The conference floor at NEU conference 2019

The conference floor at NEU conference 2019   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Socialist Party members in the NEU

School workers’ anger has been expressed at the 2019 conference of the National Education Union (NEU). This is the first conference of the new union formed by a merger of the National Union of Teachers and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

On 16 April, the day the Office for National Statistics announced that wages are ‘rising’, delegates supported an amended motion that commits the union to a strike ballot if teachers’ pay remains stagnant.

This fighting mood had already exploded onto conference floor late on the first day of conference. Delegates overturned the leadership by demanding the union ballot all primary school staff to boycott all high-stakes summative testing.

Union reps and activists must now keep up the pressure to ensure real campaigns are built to win ballots on pay and testing.

Full report next week