Trades Councils, Mental Health & Liberty: TUC Day 4

Well, it's almost over now!

We've heard the speeches of lots of other unions, and Surprise! ! Surprise!
We all suffer at the hands of Government and their policies, and we all support each other!  There is clearly an under - used resource locally- our Trades Councils

We have places on the Oxford Trades  Union Council, but need to engage with other local towns in Oxfordshire and theirTrades Union Councils/ groups.

We have listened to speeches on Mental Health issues for both children, and adult workers, and how poorly these groups have been served in schools, colleges and universities.

An emotional speech from a young, male  NUT teacher, about his attempted suicide, after the lack of support from his school, when he finally admitted his mental health problems! He is a survivor, and deservedly received a standing ovation!

Other areas covered have been  Child  Sexual Exploitation; shameful new Government rules on benefits for Disabled people, and discrimination at work!; Campaigning for reasonable adjustments at work; time off during the day for ante-natal appointments; the plight of young workers with no future of a decent pension at a reasonable age!!

Violence In The Workplace was a universal concern to unions from many areas, including schools, the Courts, Fire Service, justice, NHS; Police Surveillance; Stop And Search; Later State and TPS pensions, and the issues of resulting old age poverty, due to older teachers being 'got rid of' years before their pensions kicked in! (Resulting in them receiving a Reduced Pension.  And having to live without their State pension, for a number of years!)

Shami Chakrabarti  - the Director of Liberty also spoke about the Government's attack on Trade Unionists and the Movement in general.
Briefly, you might be interested in some of her key quotes as follows: 'Inequality Always Begins With Divide And Rule'
Beware of the Government's line' The Innocent Have Nothing To Fear' re: en masse routine surveillance. Remember Doreen Lawrence!

She spoke of the positive role played by women in Trade Unions, and urged all unions to ' Push them to the front, to the microphones, to the leadership of your unions'

This Government should be working with unions to resolve their concerns, not simply trying to restrict their activities. '

'Women will be the biggest losers in this onslaught! '

'The Government is on the wrong side of Humanity!!' '

'Please Join Liberty!'

Finally,
I've loved the TUC  Congress. Time to come home to Oxfordshire!!!

Sarah Carter
President of Oxforshire NUT Association

Defeat the Poverty Deniers: Corbyn speaks at TUC

There was a useful lunchtime joint meeting today, which  I attended, hosted by the  NUT, ATL (and supported by some  private sector non- teacher organisations.) about the value of having a full and  varied curriculum, with arts being encouraged; where getting a 'C' at GCSE isn't the only benchmark worth noting, where the parents of students( and students themselves), who struggle to reach a D, E , or lower grade, aren't convinced that they've failed their GCSE exams!!

Jeremy Corbyn arrived at 2.15pm, and his speech ran through all we hoped for! So in tune with the Trades Unions' views, he covered his views of all the areas that we've covered at this conference.

He talked of:
the  £6 million members of TU's in the UK currently, highlighting the real strength of trades unions . They are therefore an integral part of society. That is why they need to have a voice.
He talked about international TUs. - who haven't decent H &S support. who have died as a result. Such as the Colombian  miners!

'It's a worldwide movement, not just a national movement- never forget that! '

He reminded us of the £30,000 new members of the Labour Party, since Saturday's result!

He explained that on Saturday he went directly to support victims of Human Rights Abuses at the 'Refugees Welcome Here!

The next day, he went to a Mental Health event! He raised his support of 'our' NHS, and is keen for us to help to end the stigma of mental health!

'We have to address the Housing Crisis, as clearly, the free market isn't doing it!.' To do so, we have to create a substantial council housing building programme.

On the strength of the membership, Jeremy noted that he received a lot of votes in his election, in fact, 2x the number of The Conservative Party's entire membership!!

He believes that in his shadow cabinet,, that policy making will be a collective acts, not produced solely by his team, involving branch members. Why? Because
' if you are involved in policy making, then you own it, and will therefore fight to support the policy causes!  So, no surprise from the top!
He offered support to the National Gallery staff, who are in the audience today!
Corbyn noted that the Conservatives ( with only 24% of the electorate supporting them) have declared war on the Trades Unions.  They attack us  purely because we exist!
When Labour wins the next General Election in 2020, we will repeal the TU Bill,  and replace it with proper support for TUs.

He rallied against a government who are threatening the Right To Peaceful Protest, and the Right To Free Speech On Social Media.

On Pay, he talked about the reality that better management makes better and healthy and therefore more productive employees.

He called on David Cameron to support the introduction of the on-line secret ballot for unions.

He asked why shouldn't unions be political, or even choose to use some of their funds for political purposes , if they want to. This government has no problem with Hedge Fund money, but it does have a problem with the cleanest money in the UK, namely TU money, and seeks to control and restrict that!

On the Welfare Reform Bill, Corbyn. spoke about the appalling new aspects of the new Disability Benefits, and The Availability For Work Test, resulting in a number of suicides of claimants , whilst waiting long term for, or being denied essential benefits.

The Controlling of Rents and the Raising of Wages to reduce poverty is something he will introduce in 2020.

He had to leave our meeting after his speech to go to the Commons to vote against proposed cuts to Tax Credits To Parents.

Finally, he said:
The Tories call us ' Deficit Deniers'
We call them 'Poverty Deniers'

Austerity is this Government's choice!

Of his Party:
'We will be proud to campaign with  TUs.

Remember that we are quite a rich, but unequal society.

Workers founded the TU Movement, and we will build on that!'

Nothing I can add to that!

Union Rights & Education Funding: TUC Day 3

Today kicked off with many unions' impassioned pleas to support the TUC's response to the Government's  2nd Reading approval ( narrowly)  of their TU Bill, which greatly limits TU activity, and the Right To Strike, the Right To Picket, and which brings the Police ( already stretched!) into the whole process. Reps' time off to support members ( Facilities time) will be greatly restricted! Supply Agencies to be used to break strikes by covering classes where staff are out on strike! Need I go on?
The new voting system requires an substantial  number of members to send a postal vote for strike action to unions. An Abstention, and even failing to vote, will be taken as a No vote!
And yet, ironically, this Government was elected to power by 24% of the National vote! So, 76% of us don't want the Tories!!  Crime Commissioners were indeed elected to power on 14% of the vote! We'll need 40%!!!
Most businesses elect their Boards on far less!!
Electronic Balloting is surely the 21st Century way forward! But we are denied this option. Young people expect to be able to use this facility. Therefore, We must  'Kill The Bill'. Lobby Your MP!!
'We need to go to Manchester,en masse,  and disrupt the Tory Conference!' urged Malcolm Davies, of UCATT. He quoted Bob Crowe, ' if you fight, you may not always win, but if you don't fight, you will lose! '


The  Education  debates here have backed up everything we knew about education issues locally!

ATL's Shelagh Hirst,  said of the Supply Agencies that there wouldn't be enough agency staff to cover, so would staff there be quickly recruited, not properly CRB checked? No proper handovers between staff? So would vulnerable pupils, those with medical needs etc be put at risk?  Many financially desperate agency staff would be forced to cross picket lines. Future staff relations within schools would then be significantly damaged!
The current Education Funding Crisis was  seen as a disgrace, and a  TUC campaign on Funding was agreed.
6th Forms and FE's were keen to point out the attacks on pay and conditions of staff in all Post 16 institutions, and in universities.  There have been 24% cuts this year alone.

Campaigning by the TUC will follow to reverse the recently cut funding support for disabled students, and those with additional support needs!

Many speakers, including the NUT, spoke of how poverty affects the learning and life chances of vulnerable children today!

The Living Wage was cited as essential therefore, as a start.

The role of fast food chains, Sports Direct etc were mentioned as poor employers, who pay far less, and the use of zero hours' contracts as being a barrier to pulling workers out of poverty!indeed, encouraging poverty for profit!!

Some speakers talked of how some teachers try to help students by paying for their lunches, by getting clothes for them from schools' Lost Property Boxes.

 How, for those on Free School Meals, that lunch will be the only decent meal they'll get all day, and that at the weekend, they'll go hungry again, waiting for Monday, and dreading the school holidays!!!
Powerful stuff!!!

The TUC will campaign, using the United Nations Convention on The Rights Of The Child, which states: ' The best interests of the child must be a top priority in all decisions and actions that affect children' and ' Every child  has the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and social needs and support their development'.

Hold tight! Jeremy Corbyn to speak at Congress this afternoon! Can't wait!!

Sarah Carter
SE Region NUT
TUC Delegate

Stand Up for Education (Wheatley Park)

NUT members from Wheatley Park were joined by colleagues from John Watson School to discuss the upcoming Strike Action on 26^th March. Many teachers were still teaching or unable to attend due to the demands of paperwork – a vivid illustration of pressure teachers are under and of the hours they are working. Colleagues discussed the background of the action and celebrated the recent successes – the findings of the STRB and the publication of the Working time survey – both in direct response to union action.

Members went on to discuss our action next month, not only is it justified but it is also very well timed – now is a very good time to be applying pressure on a weakened secretary of state – it was stressed that strike action will only be effective if it is accompanied by lobbying of politicians and backed up by support form parents and communities. Members were urged to write to their MPs, to talk to parents and carers and to urge them to sign the petition to ‘Stand Up for Education’.

Ed

Stand Up for Education (Henley)

Really good meeting tonight in the Henley cluster. We discussed how we can build in our individual workplaces for the strike as well as the importance of keeping the pressure on after Michael Gove suffered the set back of the STRB report. We also discussed the support we have in the public and how we can get parents and communities involved. To do this, we are going to be leafleting in Henley on the 15^th of March, meeting at the Town Hall at 11am.  All local teachers are welcome to join us.

Dave

Stand Up for Education (St John's, Banbury)

NUT members from several Banbury schools met at St John's RC Primary on Thursday February 27th.

Those present discussed the proposed changes to teachers' pay and conditions and their likely effect on teachers' workload and professional relationships.

We also talked about effective communication with parents and others as to the consequences if the changes go through.

Discussion then moved on to the importance of organisation and representation at school level, building informal local support networks and using these to exchange experience and ideas.

The meeting lasted about an hour. Thanks are due to St John's Headteacher Kevin Griffiths and his staff for their warm and generous hospitality.

Ian

Stand Up for Education (Cheney)

Great meeting this afternoon at Cheney School.  Strong support for the campaign from the 25-30 teachers present.  In particular, a number of younger teachers commented on the importance of making the campaign about education, not just pay, pensions and workload.  It is not that teachers don't care about these issues - many at the meeting said the workload was almost unbearable - but that they care even more deeply about the quality of education their students receive.

The parent leaflets were very well received, as was the focus on engaging parents, pressuring politicians and strike action on 26th March.  A number of teachers have signed up for local leafleting and lobbying meetings with their MP.

All in all, a good start to the campaign.  This is the first of a number of meetings (nearly 20 now - 16 below, more to be announced).

Looking forward to getting to more schools over the coming weeks and meeting more NUT members.

Gawain

Stand Up for Education: Your nearest meeting

Over the next few weeks, we will be attempting the biggest series of NUT meetings in Oxfordshire for some time.

So far, we have 16 meetings set up and more in the pipeline.

I hope that you can join us at your nearest meeting.  If there is not one near you, get in touch and lets set one up at your school or in your local area.

Developing Strategies

And an article for Education for Tomorrow and the STA journal Education for Liberation earlier this year on similar themes:

Education faces the most sustained political attack since the formation of a state education system in the 1870s.  That much is plain.  The academy and 'free' schools privatisation programme, attacks on education workers' pensions, regressive curriculum and qualification changes, and the dismantling of national pay are all part of a broad 'reform' programme which seeks to dismantle the state education system and replace it with a fully-privatised education market, driven by profit.

NUT at the Crossroads

My guest piece for the CDFU bulletin (internal NUT publication):

The NUT is at a crossroads.

Never before have we faced a government so determined to dismantle the state education system.  Even the Thatcher government, with all its commitment to the free-market economics of Milton Fiedman, was limited in how far it could go down the road of education privatisation.  Ultimately, their experiment failed as unions, heads and LA officers worked together to ensure that Local Management of Schools, per-pupil funding and the introduction of a quasi-market through parent choice was not enough to undermine the local authority family of schools.

Organising for the Future

A busy week this week. On Thursday, our local committee met for the first time since the AGM. Great to welcome new members on board and to set out some of our plans for the coming year.

In particular, we welcomed the initial success of the organising project in Didcot and Wallingford, and are looking to extend this to other areas.

The Future of Outdoor Education in Oxfordshire

This week, Oxfordshire County Council began consultation on its proposals for restructuring its three Outdoor Education Centres:

Yenworthy, Devon
Woodlands, Wales
Kilvrough, Wales

Gove, Wilshaw, Governors and Education

Came across this petition I thought colleagues might like to sign:

Gove Must Go Petition | GoPetition

The damage that has been done to education by this government in its first three years in power, seems set to be compounded by the rest of its term.

Michael Wilshaw's latest attack on governors exposes Gove & co's complete disregard for anyone who genuinely cares about education. Their proposals for reform of governing bodies (opposed by the National Governors' Association) suggest they would be very happy to see parents, teachers and members of the local community completely replaced by paid directors like in any other business.

But the reality is that education is not just any other business. It is about the education of our children. And that process involves the whole community. It means people from within that community, whether parents teachers or others, taking a lead in the running of their schools.

There are inspirational people in schools all over the country doing precisely that, and it is those people Wilshaw is insulting with his ill-informed, ideologically-driven comments today.

Willshaw and Gove have a single agenda, to make our schools more and more like the private businesses they so admire and from which their friends make so much profit.

Our agenda must be different. It must be to develop an education system which supports every young person to achieve the best that they can. And that means working with all those who are passionate about this vision, especially those who give their time voluntarily as governors to achieve it.

The War on Teachers Affects Us All

Sunday 03 February 2013
by Gawain Little

This year began with the worrying news of a significant decline in teacher morale. A survey conducted by YouGov reported that 55 per cent of teachers described their morale as "low" or "very low."

The number giving a positive response has almost halved since April last year to 15 per cent.

The reasons for this are not difficult to understand. More than seven in 10 teachers reported that they did not feel trusted by ministers and over three-quarters felt that government policies were having a negative impact on education.

More worryingly for ministers, only 13 per cent of teachers in academies and "free" schools, the coalition's blueprint for the future of education, believe that this government is taking education in the right direction.

And it's no wonder they are sceptical.

The privatisation of the education system through the academy and "free" school initiatives is already causing huge problems.

Read more...