Does Unity Matter?

Published in Education for Tomorrow:

The well-known trade union maxim asserts that Unity is Strength. In union conferences across the movement, people declare that working people need to unite to defend themselves against this government’s attacks. Indeed, there is not one trade union activist who would oppose the idea that we need greater unity.

But what does this actually mean for education unions? I worry that too often, the unity we seek proves to be transitory, fleeting, of the moment. It is almost like we have been divided for so long that all of us have, on some level, developed a kind of cultural acceptance of that division.

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.