Why We Must Strike

 


 Strike action is never an easy decision for the majority of our members. We have joined a profession in which we often willingly work long hours to support the children in our care and we are all acutely aware of the hardships many families and children are facing at the moment. We can expect the government to wring its collective hands very publicly at our 'irresponsibility' if we take action, and for at least part of the media to agree with them.

But we must take strike action. It is already a last resort for us: the NEU has been attempting to get the government to see sense for a very long time now. If you're hesitant about voting for action, or have a colleague who is, we hope the following points provide an overwhelming case for a yes vote!

But whichever way you vote, MAKE SURE YOU VOTE! Indicative ballots for support staff and teacher members close October 14th. EVERY VOTE COUNTS!

Contents:

  • What has the NEU done to avoid the need for strike action?
  • Why is it right to strike?
    • We are being offered a big pay cut
    • We can't afford NOT to strike
    • Not striking will make it harder for schools to avoid redundancies
    • Not striking will leave fewer resources for our students
    • We can't solve a recruitment and retention crisis with more cuts
    • Not striking will not be enough for this government
    • The money is there
    • We are not alone
    • We can win
    • There will be support for members most in need
       

What has the NEU done to avoid the need for strike action?

Our joint General Secretary Kevin Courtney has done a very useful Twitter thread on this, which can be found here. We have shamelessly nicked this and reproduced it below!



Why it is right to strike

1: We are being offered a big pay cut

This is obvious to all of us. Inflation is rampant, and the governnment's 'feed the rich' tax policy has contributed to a sudden increase in the interest rates, which will impact on debt, mortgage payments and the cost of living more generally. 5% for teachers was already a 7-8% pay cut, and this will only get worse now. For support staff, while some will be getting an increase of around 10%, this is only because they have been so poorly paid for so long in the first place. Teachers have already lost around 20% of the value of their salaries since 2010. A further massive pay cut in the aftermath of our hard work and putting ourselves at risk in the pandemic is. A. Disgrace.



2: We can't afford NOT to strike

While striking will lose you some income (1/365 of your salary), you would have to strike for more than 25 days to lose as much as we will by taking a 7% pay cut, which is what we're facing this year. If we were to lose as much as we have lost over the last decade's real terms pay cuts, we'd have to strike continuously for YEARS. We have a lot to gain and a lot less to lose by taking action now!

3: Not striking will make it harder for schools to avoid redundancies

The pay 'rise' (i.e. slightly smaller cut) that has been offered is not funded. This means that school budgets already under strain after more than a decade of austerity, most of which meant real-terms cuts to budgets, and facing doubling of energy costs, won't be given the money to pay for the increase. There is no way that this will not lead to redundancies for support staff and teaching staff.

The NEU is demanding a FULLY FUNDED pay rise that will not put additional pressure on school budgets.

4: Not striking will leave our students with fewer resources

The pay cut we are being offered will still take more resources out of school budgets. Unless it is funded, there will be less we can offer students in school, and redundancies will mean less support for students and bigger class sizes. As Kevin Courtney, the NEU's Joint General Secretary, likes to say: "our working conditions are our students' learning conditions." If our students don't see us standing up for the quality of their education and for ourselves, what message does this send to them?

4:  We can't solve a recruitment and retention crisis with more cuts

The insufficient recruitment and retention in the teaching profession has been getting worse for several years, as pay has declined and workload increased. The joint NEU, NAHT and ASCL briefing here covers this in more detail, but cutting pay significantly and exacerbating shortages in school budgets will make the situation worse, not better. We face a future with fewer and fewer experienced teachers and more and more burden being placed on recently qualified teachers, which will only make recruitment and retention even worse. Only a FULLY FUNDED real PAY RISE can begin to fix the situation.




5: Not striking will not be enough for this government

This is a government that has been in office for over 12 years. They have cut our real-terms pay and education funding for almost the entirety of this period and introduced the harshest anti-union laws in the developed world to make it harder for us to take action.

We know that the current government is absolutely determined to keep wages down, as the Prime Minister, her economic advisers and MPs have all taken to the media today. If we agree to a pay cut this year, under these conditions, where members are facing hardship and using food banks, they will come back and try to cut our pay again.

Here is one of Liz Truss' ministers on the BBC on 29th September:


 

 


Here is one of the economists who support the government's policies: Here is another: And here is the Prime Minister herself attempting to justify her policies on BBC local radio yesterday (29th September):

6: The Money Is There


 

The government has spent most of the last decade pursuing a policy of 'austerity' - holding pay down and underfunding of public services - that has resulted in a mass transfer of wealth to the richest in society. A major driver of inflation has been the unwillingness to change policy away from pushing as much wealth as possible up to the few at the top. In France for example, energy bills have risen by 4% this year. In the UK prices have more than doubled for many. This has meant superprofits and hyperwealth, which can be more productively used by workers and in the provision of services that we all need. We know this government can be made to change even their most coveted policies if the pressure is there - we must apply that pressure for education!

7: We Are Not Alone

This summer has been marked by the largest strike wave for many years, a wave that is growing as the autumn is bringing the cost of living crisis into sharp relief. 

This graph shows strike action in June and July of 2022 compared to 2019 average:

This wave was reflected in the massive cost of living demonstration on June 18 (see our report on the demonstration here)


 and in education, the NASUWT are currently consulting their members on taking action, as is the NAHT.

 You can see the number of ongoing disputes can be seen in the UK Strike Map resource.
 

This Saturday (1st October) we visited the RMT, TSSA, ASLEF and CWU picket lines in Derby as part of their ongoing disputes over pay and the attempted destruction of terms and conditions by employers. Solidarity is a vital part of the trades union movement and we know that when we offer solidarity we will receive it in return (see our report on solidarity during the summer here).

 




8: We Can Win

In education, the last national strike action was when the NUT struck in 2016 over the then Conservative government's proposal to destroy all national terms and conditions through forced national academisation in England. This action was successful: the plan was scrapped, national terms and conditions were maintained and the education secretary was sacked. 


 

This year, strikes have resulted in big wins for workers seeking pay rises. Here is a list of Unite the union's victories in the last year;  and here are just some of the victories the NEU has seen this year:

  • Girls Day School Trust (national)
  • Newham Sixth Form College, Newham
  • Gordono school, North Somerset
  • Our Lady and St George school, Waltham Forest
  • Salisbury Manor school, Waltham Forest
  • The Winns school, Waltham Forest
  • Connaught School for Girls, Waltham Forest

9: There will be support for those struggling

Unlike with individual school strikes, members will not receive strike pay for taking national industrial action. This is not as much of a loss as you may think, but we know that some members will struggle more than others. The NEU has a Trust Fund and a Hardship Fund, and we will be setting up a local Derby hardship fund too for those who need some assistance. We expect that more members will need to apply for assistance than in previous industrial action, but this reflects the impossible situation many of our members will find themselves in if we do not win a better, FUNDED pay offer.

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