M26: What happened and what happens next?

Published 27/3/14 on Education for the People blog and 29/3/14 in the Morning Star as Top Tactics from the NUT:

In spite of attempts by the government to say otherwise, yesterday’s national strike by the NUT was a huge display of strength.  Not only was there a fantastic response from teachers across the country but the NUT clearly won over a huge proportion of parents and the public.

Part of this is to do with the fact that we won the arguments with government in the media.  Interview after interview showed the NUT come out positively in the face of government intransigence.

Strength in United Joint Action

Published in Education for Tomorrow.

Around 16 months ago, the National Union of Teachers declared a dispute with the Secretary of State for Education over pensions, pay, working conditions and jobs, and balloted its membership for strike action and action short of a strike on the three latter issues. This built on an existing dispute and ballot in relation to pensions and linked with a dispute declared by sister union NASUWT on all four issues less than one year previously.

This is, of course, a clear trade dispute in terms of the issues raised with the Secretary of State and is the subject of legitimate industrial action, even under Britain's restrictive anti-union laws. But the changes to teachers pay, pensions and working conditions, and the onslaught of job losses, particularly at local authority level, are part of a much wider programme of change which extends way beyond the bounds of national policy.