NEU Left Bulletin January 2025. (140125)

Why we need to take the fight to this government

The union is launching an indicative ballot of teacher members from 1 March over the insult of the unfunded 2.8% pay award the government is proposing.

That’s absolutely the right thing to do. We have no choice but to build the ballot and then drive forward to action. The stakes are high.

No one, surely, expected miracles when last year we ended 14 years of Tory austerity and the new government came in.

But most working people expected and hoped for at least some improvement.

Instead the reality is grim and getting worse- the winter fuel allowance, the WASPI women’s betrayal, attacks on disabled benefits and the prospect of more cuts in schools and education and other public services.

Now chancellor Reeves is even hinting at more spending cuts in the March budget.

If this goes on the only result will be the continued rise of Farage and the racist Reform UK or the rebound of Badenoch and her Tory rabble.

We cannot stand by and let that happen. We have to take the fight to Starmer and his government and win real improvements to health, education, living standards and more.

We need to use our collective power when we mobilise, organise, protest and strike to force the government to tax the rich and big business and invest in the needs of working people.

Our ballot matters for our members, it matters for the children and families we serve, and it matters as part of this bigger fight too.

The NEU calculates that 76 percent of primary and 94 percent of secondary schools will not be able to manage even the 2.8 percent without making more cuts-damaging the education of children.

Education secretary Phillipson has the cheek to suggest schools manage by making “efficiency savings” such as changing electricity supplier. Which planet does she live on? 

Breaking point

Schools are at breaking point from years of underfunding. The sharpest expression of this is the utter breakdown in SEND provision and the way this is harming the most vulnerable children.

Teachers are at breaking point too from years of increasing workload driven by cuts and Ofsted, and years of pay cuts which, despite the gains through our strikes over the last 2 years, still leave us nearly 20 percent worse off than 15 years ago. 

No wonder parents are angry at the state of education and no wonder there is a recruitment and retention crisis in education.

There is a simple solution- tax the rich and big business.

Labour wants to keep corporation tax on profits unchanged at a maximum 25 percent. Why? This is 10 percent lower than even Margaret Thatcher taxed profits! The government’s HMRC tax gatherers estimate every 1 percent in corporation tax would bring in an extra £2.6 billion.

So there’s an idea. Tax business the way Thatcher did and that would bring in some £26 billion for things that matter to ordinary people.

And while we are told to accept austerity, company profits are soaring. UK companies overall saw profits increase to a staggering £145 billion just over the last 3 months of 2024.

As for the rich,  the tiny number of billionaires in the UK saw their combined wealth increase by a further £150 billion between 2020 and 2002 according to he EqualityTrust.

The money is there and we have to demand loud and clear that it is used for working people and their needs.

So let’s get organising at every level of the union and ensure that the school and district meetings, and the campaigning is done to drive the turn out in our ballot as high as possible and tell this government either deliver or we will force them to do so.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede joined strikers at Hills Road sixth form college in Cambridge on the picket line last week

Sixth Form Fight to be stepped up

NEU members at non-academised sixth form colleges continued their fight for pay parity with other teachers on there strike days last week.

There were lively pickets around the country. The action has shifted the government- which was originally only funding a 2 percent rise- while school and academies sixth forms were getting 5.5 percent from last September.

The government now says it will fund the 5.5 percent from this March, but only 3.5 percent from last September to this March.

This shows action works, but is not good enough. The principle at the heart of the fight is clear- all teachers should get the same pay rise.

It would cost the government very little to bridge the gap and settle in full- which makes strikers rightly suspicious that a wider political agenda is at work.

Quite rightly the union is building on this action by stepping up the fight and calling now for 4 strikes days later this half term and is planning demonstrations and protests to go along with those strikes.

Solidarity needed

Lambeth battles

Lambeth NEU have 9 schools in fights.  A key issue is the threat to close schools due to falling rolls- and increasing issue right across London and some other areas too.

In four of the threatened schools members have already taken strike action and joined protests at the town hall with parents (pic above).

As a result two of the schools have been removed from the closure consultation and the council is also talking about mergers instead of out right closures. But the fight continues and more action is now planned.

There have also been indicative ballots at a MAT over maternity pay and a secondary school over workload- both of which returned massive near 100 percent Yes votes on near 100 percent turnouts- with formal action ballots now due at the end of this month.

Messages of support to: [email protected]

Coventry fights

Members at Coventry School Foundation independent schools took their first day of strike action over attacks on pensions and other terms & conditions last week. Eight more days of strikes, starting this week, are now planned.

Meanwhile in Coventry a ballot at one school has also been enough to push the Local Authority into an agreement on automatic progression in a city wide fight over ending Performance Related Pay.

Haringey action ballots

Five community secondary schools in Haringey, north London, started action ballots this week over threats of the borough class size agreement. Schools are planning to increase class sizes and also contact time for teachers and impose extra cover. The ballots will run to 10 February.

Send messages of support to: [email protected]

Redbridge in triple fight

NEU members are involved in three battles in Redbridge, east London. 

At Newbury Park primary members took their fourth day of strike action last week over workload issues, rep victimisation and the shocking routine resort to split classes rather than providing cover. They are also planning a parents meeting this week.

Members at Wanstead High School, Redbridge were also on the picket line last week, including many support staff. Staff are striking over workload, exceeded 1265 hours, excess monitoring/excess management intervention. A parents meeting was set for this week and more action is planned for next week.

And NEU members at Redbridge Alternative Provision were starting a full five day week of strikes this week in a fight over workload, directed time and observations.

Please send messages of support for all these to:  [email protected]

Cooper strikes in Oxfordshire

 NEU teacher members at the Acer Academy Trust run Cooper School in Bicester in Oxfordshire struck last week over proposed cuts to staffing that they say will have a devastating effect on pastoral care and the learning opportunities for pupils. More strikes were planned but are now on hold for a fortnight to allow negotiations with management.

Send us your reports

If you have strikes and want them reported in the NEU Left bulletin please email details, with a contact for message of support- and any pictures too- to [email protected]

Stand with Palestine

The genocidal horror in Palestine, carried out by Israel but financed, backed and armed by the US and Britain, shows no sign of ending. 

That’s why it is both necessary and right to step up our solidarity with Palestine and continue to build every protest and day of action.

Saturday 18th January is the next national demonstration- which is going ahead despite police attempts to block and ban it.

And on 13 February is the next day of action in solidarity with Palestine. We need to make sure the NEU is at the heart of this movement and that in as many areas and schools as possible we join that day of action in some way.

Stand up to Racism

Stop Robinson’s Rabble. Challenge Reform UK

The NEU has played an exemplary role in ensuring the fight to beat back the far right as a key issue in Britain. Our union was at the heart of the mobilisation against Tommy Robinson’s demo last October.

Robinson’s far right rabble now plan another march in London on Saturday 1 February and Stand up to Racism is again calling a counter mobilisation. The NEU nationally has already ut out and excellent video featuring general secretary Daniel Kebede calling on members to mobilise to join that protest.

We need to build the numbers coming to London on 1 February from every area- 0on trains and coaches and working with other unions and activists to ensure we keep pushing back against the far right.

And we also need to work with the widest range of forces in eery area to build an effective campaign to push back against the threat of the racist Reform UK in the local elections taking place in many areas this May.

Watch and circulate the video: