NEU – National Education Union

Bureaucrats behaving badly

The TUC has fined the NEU £153,000, bang in the middle of their strike campaign.

Workers Power  ·  04 June 2023

Teachers: protest strikes won’t win real pay rise

More strikes announced, but union leaders preparing to settle for pay cut

KD Tait  ·  27 April 2023

Yellow Unison goes running to education bosses

By a Unison activist THE NATIONAL Education Union has won an impressive mandate to call an official strike ballot for a cost of living pay increase. Not only did over a quarter of a million teachers vote by 86% on a 62% turnout for strike action in support of a fully-funded (i.e. increasing school budgets) […]

Workers Power  ·  02 November 2022

Public sector pay ballots: press for co-ordination

Nurses, refuse collectors, youth workers, teachers, lecturers and civil servants are being balloted.

Rebecca Anderson  ·  10 September 2022

Report — TUC lefts urge resistance to cost of living crisis

By Jeremy Dewar “A new deal for working people, a new social settlement for the UK” A LONDON TUC rally for the 18 June national demonstration heard speakers from a variety of disputes and strikes. Rail workers, teachers and lecturers, caterers and cleaners, civil servants were all represented. The eve-of-rally meeting, held at Congress House […]

Jeremy Dewar  ·  14 June 2022

The fight for safe re-opening of schools goes on

A brief respite is being eroded by the government's failure to adequately fund safe schools

A Unison Steward  ·  16 February 2021

Fight for workers’ control of the lockdown

The teachers' initiative is a model for workers to follow

KD Tait  ·  05 January 2021

School closures can develop into fight for workers’ control of education

By KD Tait Following a mass online briefing attended by tens of thousands of education workers at the weekend, trade unionists are taking action to prevent the unsafe reopening of schools. This action is now essential because the government’s insistence on keeping schools open was a major contributory factor to the spread of a more […]

KD Tait  ·  04 January 2021

Shut down schools and colleges now

We need to prepare to take action.

A Unison Steward  ·  10 November 2020

Imperialism in the classroom: decolonise the curriculum

Tories ban anti-capitalist materials from the classroom.

Dara O'Cogaidhin  ·  05 October 2020

Tories could unleash a second wave by reopening schools

For parents', students' and teachers' control of health and safety in our schools.

A UCU rep  ·  03 September 2020

Unions and Labour Councils must step up the fight against unsafe re-opening of schools

How we can stop the schools reopening on 1 June and put public health before private wealth

A school union rep  ·  20 May 2020

School closures: skeleton service or community organisation?

The vulnerable will suffer most in any social – and economic – lockdown. We must insist schools apply a broad definition to the terms of which students and families are ‘vulnerable’ based on need, not the dictates of an uncaring, neoliberal government seeking to protect business over workers and the poor.

A Unison Steward  ·  21 March 2020

Unison Ballots School Staff For Action

After years of inaction, Unison members finally have the chance to send a message to the Tories that workers are prepared to fight the destruction of our education system

Workers Power  ·  29 January 2019

Academy collapses: students, parents and teachers among the debris

Wakefield City Academies Trust has announced that it is pulling out of 21 schools, throwing the academic lives of thousands of children across Yorkshire into limbo.

Rob Schofield  ·  24 October 2017

Tories deploy 'British values' against Muslims

By Bernie McAdam After their humiliation in the EU elections at the hands of UKIP the Tories had to do something to reclaim the mantle of Britain’s number one racist party. The answer was to stir up Islamophobia by attacking Birmingham schools whose catchment area has a large Muslim population. In March an anonymous letter was […]

Workers Power  ·  23 June 2014

Teachers: all out on 26 march

 The National Union of Teachers has called a national strike in a continuing campaign to defend pay, pensions and conditions: report by NUT member Bernie McAdam Teachers are right to feel angry. That’s why thousands of schools will be closed on 26 March across England and Wales. Our aim must be to use this one-day […]

Workers Power  ·  22 March 2014

The NUT and the Grand old Duke of York

  By Bernie McAdam Teachers from both main unions have overwhelmingly supported a series of regional strikes against Education Secretary Michael Gove’s attacks on pay, pensions and workload. This action was meant to be a forerunner to a national strike before Christmas. But now the NUT leadership has decided to call off further action for […]

Workers Power  ·  27 November 2013

Teachers: national action the only way forward

Thousands of teachers thronged Markham Street in Westminster between the Home Office and Department for Education, writes Bernie McAdam, NUT. Some started jumping up and down as loud calls rang out for “Gove to go”. You could feel the frisson in the air as the police did not quite know what was going to happen […]

Workers Power  ·  18 October 2013

Schools out! Teachers’ strikes must escalate

By Bernie McAdam The teachers’ unions NUT and NASUWT called the second and third of their regional strikes this month as they step up their fight against Education Secretary Michael Gove’s attacks on their pay, pensions and workload. Teachers from the Eastern, Midlands and Yorkshire and Humberside areas took one-day strike action on 1 October. […]

Workers Power  ·  09 October 2013

Teachers call for strike action – Gove’s attacks must be stopped

  By Bernie McAdam, Sandwell NUT   The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is gearing up for a national strike on Wednesday 13 March, possibly coinciding with a European TUC Day of Action against austerity. This is a direct response to Tory Education Secretary Michael Gove’s vicious attack on teachers’ pay. His plans will involve […]

Workers Power  ·  20 January 2013

NUT and NASUWT launch joint campaign

By Bernie McAdam, Sandwell NUT Teachers’ unions NUT and NASUWT have announced a joint campaign to defend pensions and protect pay, working conditions and jobs. Teachers will be balloted both for strike action and action short of strike to be taken in the autumn term “should the government refuse to listen”. As yet no clear […]

Workers Power  ·  12 June 2012

NUT leaders dither as teachers lose out

By Bernie McAdam, Sandwell NUT The National Union of Teachers (NUT) Conference this Easter made abundantly clear to its leaders that more national strike action was needed to stop the Coalition’s pensions attack. A successful motion called for regional strikes in the summer term, culminating in a national strike in June. Within weeks, however, the […]

Workers Power  ·  12 May 2012

Pensions dispute and the left: a tale of backsliding and cover-up

THE 28 MARCH strike by London schools and colleges showed just how impressive a nation-wide strike could have been. Around 1,500 schools were shut down or severely disrupted, while almost all colleges and most ‘new’ universities faced chaos or closure. Ten thousand marched in central London, bringing traffic to a halt and cheers from passers-by. […]

Jeremy Dewar  ·  04 April 2012

Pensions: left leaders in retreat — only the organised rank and file can restart the fight

By Mark Booth AFTER A TURBULENT week of union executive meetings, 300 militants packed into Friends Meeting House for an emergency conference to fight the pensions sell out. It soon became clear to everyone at Unite the Resistance’s gathering that the PCS and NUT leaders would not be calling more strikes in the next few […]

Workers Power  ·  16 January 2012

Education not for sale

Public education is under attack. Greedy corporations are hell bent on getting their hands on schools, colleges and universities – desperate to make a profit out of education and knowledge. This is having a terrible affect on young people, adult learners and education workers – as the market drives up costs, drives down standards and […]

Workers Power  ·  27 September 2011

On strike in Lambeth: solidarity forever!

By a striking Unison Teaching Assistant 8.00am The NUT rep and I mounted a picket at our school – much to the Headteacher’s surprise, who had expected a passive, going-through-the-motions strike. Until yesterday, we had an agreement that seven Unison members would respect the picket line, but this crumbled at the last minute with colleagues […]

Workers Power  ·  01 July 2011

Stop Gove's plans to turn primary schools into academies

Education Secretary, Michael Gove, has announced he will turn 200 “worst-achieving” primary schools into academies next year, writes Rachel Brooks, NUT member

Workers Power  ·  17 June 2011

Tory teacher launches campaign for flagship ‘Free School’

Katharine Birbalsingh wowed the Conservative Party conference with her tales of a south London school, which was “out of control” supposedly because white liberal teachers were afraid of punishing black pupils. Jeremy Drinkall reports on plans to put her right wing educational theories to the test by opening a “Free School” in the area

Workers Power  ·  20 May 2011

Teachers taking action over pensions

THIS YEAR’S NUT conference passed important resolutions calling for co-ordinated strikes over pensions and backed calls for a one day public sector general strike. Teachers will now join with hundreds of thousands of other public sector workers on strike on 30 June in defence of their pensions.

Workers Power  ·  26 April 2011

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