The campaign continues…
PAY, PENSIONS & WORKLOAD CAMPAIGN
Birmingham NUT Schools PowerPoint - Spring 2014
What’s the plan? The strikes are on!
National strike action
th
26
March 2014
Strike day rally and
march for Education
Assemble 11:30am in
Birmingham’s Victoria Square
for the strike day demo & rally.
EVERYONE IS WELCOME –
BRING COLLEAGUES,
FAMILY & FRIENDS!
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What happens after the strike?
If Gove doesn’t show he is serious
about settling the dispute:
We will then go to NUT
conference at Easter and plan
further action AFTER THE
EXAMS in the summer and into
the autumn term.
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What is the action for?
The dispute is with Gove and the Government
It covers:
 PENSIONS (Especially working to 69 to get full pension. Plus we
want a full valuation of the scheme)
 DEREGULATION OF PAY (End of national scales, loss of portability.)
 PERFORMANCE RELATED PAY (Different in every school, huge
power for heads.)
 UNACCEPTABLE WORKLOAD (Stress is the number one cause for
illness and the number 1 reason teachers leave)
But our action means we have WON over most of these areas:
 DEREGULATION OF SCHOOL DAY, WORKING HOURS,
REMOVAL OF PPA ETC.
We want to force negotiations and concessions.
We want to influence all parties whilst they are vulnerable
because of elections.
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It’s official. We’re overworked!
After NUT pressure DfE finally release 2013 workload survey.
Working hours are UP for all!
Primary teachers 60 hours per week
Primary Heads 60.2 hours per week
Secondary teachers 56 hours per week
Secondary Heads 63 hours per week
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Why this is a good time to act
• Gove has recently fallen out with Ofsted
• Gove was forced to back-track over most of his proposed
attacks on conditions by the STRB report
• London Underground strikes forced Johnson to the
negotiating table
• 2015 Election getting closer
-Gove beginning to be seen as a liability who polarises voters.
-Teachers MUCH more popular than Gove! (88% of people
trust us while 77% expect politicians to lie! - Ipsos MORI
2013)
- 54 % think that Gove is doing badly as Education Secretary
and less than one fifth back him over us! (YouGov Feb 2014)
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Public with us but more to win...
Commissioned by the Sunday Times but NOT published by them. Can’t think why?
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Spread the message of why we’re out
8th March – National day of leafleting.
Meet at Waterstones on the High St, BullRing at noon.
(it’s also International Women’s Day!)
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The stalls are popular. Why not set up one in your locality too?
Spread it far and wide!
As well as talking to as many parents as possible to tell
them why we want to stop the attacks on teachers and
education, we also need you to:
- Lobby your MP
- Visit other local schools to discuss why they need to
come out too!
- Get leaflets handed out at school
- Talk to your colleagues about leafleting a locality
Plus get your colleagues, friends and family to this:
Solidarity with the striking teachers!
West Midlands Unite the Resistance NUT strike solidarity rally
for teachers, parents and other trade unionists.
7:30pm Thursday 19th March,
Carrs Lane Church Centre, Carrs Lane, Birmingham B4 7SX.
To reserve a seat or for details email: westmidsutr@gmail.com
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Other activities - ASOSA
Continuation of the Action Short Of Strike Action
and school level escalation to paid strike action WITH NASUWT
COLLEAGUES.
Action instructions are on the NUT website – www.teachers.org.uk
In particular we want to focus on winning school pay policies and
school appraisal policies that are NUT/NASUWT checklist
compliant.
NB. The Birmingham LA policy is better than others but needs
to have the NUT/NASUWT amendments to be checklist
compliant. For details go to www.banut.net
We’re also joining the UAF/TUC national demo to celebrate UN Anti-Racism
Day in LONDON on 22nd March:
Say no to scapegoating – solidarity with all immigrants!
The Birmingham UAF coach leaves from the Iron Man, Victoria Sq at 8:15am.
Reserve your seat by calling/texting Doug on 07506894825.
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Can we win?
 On our own we won the largest pay increase in the public sector
through our strike action in 2008.
 We did win concessions through pensions strikes
 Protection for those 50 +
 Increase of 8% in Government’s pension offer
(This 8% increase is worth on average £800 more a year for every year of
retirement to teachers – much more than the cost of the two strike days
taken to achieve it.)
 We are winning in many schools on pay and appraisal policies
 Parental opinion is anti-Gove and parties are vulnerable in the run up
to the election
 Action without the NASUWT will be tougher, but the impact of 300,000
striking teachers is still immense!
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What should we do now?
Call a union meeting and ensure that everyone knows why this strike is so
important. Gove will be counting EVERY TEACHER that goes in on 26th March as
a vote of support for him. You have a right to picket your school to others not to go
in. In any event we’d love to see as many school gate ‘Rallies for Education’ with
banners, placards and leaflets to put across our strike day message to the public.
According to the YouGov survey (Dec 2013) most NASUWT members agree with
the need to strike. We want as many teachers to join the NUT to strike on the day.
Teachers can be members of more than one union (free to join us until 2015 for
most non-members!)
Get a campaign team in your school – talk to colleagues about striking, leafleting
etc.
Make sure that every teacher joins the NUT! Encourage new teachers and non
members to join to NUT!
Note: Students, Schools Direct and Teach First can join free as student members
whilst on their training courses. Please ask all on training to join the NUT! Any NUT
member employed via the school can join the action too!
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