In the recent spate of school strikes across London, the National Education Union has been offering teachers up to 100% of their pay lost due to strike action. While there will be some money lost to their pension contributions, this essentially amounts to a cost-free strike.

By Jeremy Dewar The National Education Union is coordinating strikes across 10 schools in four London boroughs. Teachers are on the picket lines on 27 February and 5, 11, 12 and 13 March, while some will take off days in between as well. Strikers from all the schools will rally together outside the Department for […]

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

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

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) […]

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

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 […]

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

The teachers' initiative is a model for workers to follow

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 […]

We need to prepare to take action.

Tories ban anti-capitalist materials from the classroom.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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 […]

 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 […]

  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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

  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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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