A Report of My Term in Office as the Black Members’ Constituency Seat
Holder for 2010-2012
Greetings colleagues
Background
It has been a very interesting experience being on the Executive of the Union, the
body that has the responsibility to determine the Union’s direction, making critical
decisions and representations to Government through their consultations on behalf
of our profession.
As this was a new post it took quite a while to determine what the similarities to the
other Executive members were and the differences.
The constituency seat holder will not be able to take on individual casework, but can
advise and support the Divisional Secretary concerned with the case.
Executive meetings take place over two days every month, but there are other
meetings and advisory committees that Executive members attend.
I must give credit to the people who work in Hamilton House in different
Departments. The responses to written and oral representations are always of a very
high quality.
I would especially like to say thank you to David Powell, Robert Cheesman, and
Andrew Morris for their invaluable help, sometimes at short notice when fighting an
academy conversion or putting the NUT vision through in Schools’ Forum
consultations from the DFE. Also thanks to Nick Kirby for coming to Southwark to
speak to members on the pensions issue.
The Executive
There are four main Committees with advisory committees feeding into them:
The Education and Equalities Committee, The Salaries, Superannuation and
Employment Conditions & Rights Committee, Resource Management Committee
and The Organising and Membership Committee.
Alongside the advisory committees, there are various task groups and sub
committees set up to deal with particular issues that also feed into the respective
Departments. Currently, I am a member of the Race Advisory Committee and
Disability Advisory Committee, which influence motions going to their respective
TUC Conferences. I am also a member of the Primary Advisory and the School
Reorganisation Committees.
All Executive members must choose two Committees to be members of and I chose
the Education and Equalities Committee and the Organising and Membership
Committee.
There are a lot of papers to read for each Committee because this Government is
driving through so many changes and they all need responding to for the good of the
profession.
As part of the Education & Equality Committee, Executive members support all the
equality conferences they can throughout the year and any other related events.
TUC Black Workers’ Conference
One event that members are able to attend is the TUC Black Workers’ Conference
and an Executive member can be elected onto the TUC Race Relations Committee
in that Conference. It is an excellent conference because you can find out what is
happening to black workers in different areas of the workforce. A motion is usually
chosen to go forward to the main TUC Congress in September.
The black members’ constituency seat holder is expected to attend as a delegate
from the NUT. Members who put themselves forward at the Black Teachers’
Conference can be elected to be part of that delegation to the 2012 Conference.
In April 2010, I attended for the first time and was thrown in at the deep end as I was
chosen to move the NUT amendment to a motion on ’Black Workers and Public
Sector Spending’ which was the first motion of the Conference to be debated. I had
to write my speech and be the first speaker of the Conference!
I quoted research carried out in January 2010 by the Institute For Public Policy,
which stated that the effects of the recession in terms of census categories showed
that 48%of Black and 31% of Asian people between the ages of 16 and 24 were
unemployed. The percentage of White people within that same age group was just
20%.
I raised the issue of the education cuts which in the context of existing achievement
gaps, will affect several groups of black pupils. The Ethic Minority Achievement
Grant has been cut leaving children with English as an additional language without
the specialist intervention they need to access the curriculum in schools and
colleges.
It was at that conference that I attended a fringe meeting about the Equality Bill and
from the written information received it was clear to me then, that this new bill that
was passed on the 8th April 2010, but would come into force in October 2010, was
very weak and would be detrimental in our fight against institutional racism. Since
that time I have been insisting on data from Divisional Secretaries’ casework, to
ascertain what was happening to our teachers around the country.
I have also been pushing my local authority for data from the race policies in schools
and for Equality Impact Assessments on the cuts they are enforcing.
This is still on going and I would like to see that through to be able to present
findings to the TUC Race Relations Committee. The fact that the EHRC is facing up
to 70% cuts is also worrying, because if the cuts are implemented, they will not be
able enforce the law adequately.
In 2011, I spoke in support of the UCU (University College Union) motion on ‘Tuition
fees and cuts to EMA. The main thrust of my argument was that gaining a place at
university used to be based on ability, not ability to pay, and that it was hypocritical of
a Government that had benefited from free university education to not afford the
same privilege to others. This year, I was elected to be a member on the TUC Race
Relations Committee, which consists of members from all affiliated unions.
As a member of the Organising and Membership Committee, decisions are made
about the membership in terms of campaigning, NQT packs, and courses available
for members. I pushed hard for the Equality Officers’ course that was postponed due
to the TUC march, to be put on again this term as Equality Officers need the training
now. So please sign up to this course as soon as possible if you are an Equality
Officer or School Rep and would value having equality training to assist in supporting
your members.
Events I Attended/Will Attend
My first invite was from Leicester NUT Association to speak on equality matters at
their General Meeting. It was a shame that I did not meet any black teachers at that
meeting as none attended, but I would still like to speak to any black teachers in
Leicestershire to find out what is happening there.
Lambeth NUT invited me to speak at their Reps training day, and their Black
Teachers’ Group requested that I spoke at their meeting to update members on
union issues. I encouraged them to write up minutes and send them to their
committee with action points to be raised. Once an Advisory Committee for African
Caribbean and Asian Heritage members is set up, in line with our 2011 conference
motion that was passed, it can be the vehicle through which recommendations on
issues concerning us can be made to the Union.
Yorkshire NUT invited me to their regional Equality Conference in June this year but
I was unable to attend due to prior commitments. However, they sent me an
excellent document on Tackling Islamophobia in the classroom, for the 11-18 age
group, which I have asked to be placed on the Black Members’ section of the
website. I have been contacted by a couple of Muslim teachers locally who are also
facing discrimination in their place of work and I advised them to keep dated records
and to raise their issues with the headteacher informally first as they have a duty of
care to all their staff.
I attended Gus John’s promotion of his Learner’s Charter event at Hamilton House
and the Show Racism the Red Card event at the same venue earlier this year.
At the Gus John event, some disturbing figures were revealed on exclusions from
academies. Permanent exclusions by ethnic group and school for the years
2007/08showed that Black Caribbean or mixed race or other black pupils are
excluded up to 10% more in academies than mainstream schools. New impending
legislation states that exclusion appeals will not have the ability to get students
reinstated.
I also attended a Black Teachers’ Conference in Lancashire North West NUT, which
was an eye opener in terms of the hard time many black supply teachers are having
in securing jobs. One male teacher was told by the agency that his surname was
probably the reason he was not getting work!! He is now signing on and wondering if
he should change his career. Another supply teacher was concerned about the lack
of CPD and performance management from the schools she has been working in for
the last five years. Although she had helped schools get through their Ofsted, she
had not been given any evidence of her practice in writing and was worried that she
would not be able to move up the pay scale by getting her threshold. I encouraged
her to request any successful observations are given to her in writing along with
positive comments etc to begin building a portfolio of evidence when she is on long
term placements.
Another teacher was having problems obtaining a reference from her last school and
had to get a job in the care services to avoid losing her home. These are some of the
issues facing our black teachers and need to be addressed by our Union.
I will be attending a black teachers’ meeting in Hackney early in November. I look
forward to meeting the teachers there.
Some members may feel that by having a Black Teachers’ Conference the Union is
failing in some way. But I would say in fact it is a way to make sure our issues are
addressed and not lost in the mire of consultations and campaigns the Union is
involved in nationally and internationally.
A quote from the Unison website states that: ‘They are committed to equality and
promote self- organisation because trade unionism is all about organising
members around a common experience.’
In the case of equality it is about prejudice, discrimination and racism in the
workplace which is illegal.
The NUT puts on several courses to help black teachers be equipped to move into
leadership, as well as Internationalising Learning, and Equality Rep courses.
Please check on the Union website www.teachers.org.ukfor courses and apply.
Teachers are now able to apply to attend courses for their own professional
development.
The NUT has also been involved with the other teacher unions, the TUC and the
Anti-Slavery Campaign in developing a school cross curricular resource called Fair’s
Fair, which deals with the issue of fair trade.
Professional Issues that Affect Us All
The NUT is fighting for education and teachers on so many fronts at the moment.
Teacher professionalism is under attack like never before, and it is time we as
professionals stand up to reclaim our profession. Doctors or lawyers are not dictated
to the way teachers and headteachers are, and yet all of the members of Parliament
had a teacher!! This Government needs to respect teachers and give us the
autonomy we deserve, doing a job that many people could not do and we do very
well indeed.
The most prevalent issue at the moment is our pensions. The Government has not
produced the valuation we have requested to justify the cuts to our pensions to pay
for the bankers’ casino tactics.
The changes made to our pensions agreed in 2007 are producing enough savings
and will continue to do so with no changes to our current system.
The NUT is currently involved in a judicial review in High court about change from
RPI (Retail Price Index) the higher rate to CPI(Consumer Price Index), the lower rate
which has made the value of our pensions less. This was a clear breach of the
Government’s manifesto promise.
Young teachers will be affected the most by the CONDEM proposals. They cannot
afford to pay more, work longer and get less when they retire; they have student
debts and housing to consider. Our pension’s scheme is self-funding and if young
teachers opt out it will affect the scheme as a whole.
This will be a hard battle that we must win. All teachers who did not come out on
strike in June need to do so in solidarity with the profession on 30thNovember.
We are proud of what we do and we worked very hard to get where we are. We need
to stand up and defend our rights.
The second equally important campaign is against academies, the privatisation of
education. Haringey headteachers have passed a resolution to oppose forced
academies, so the fight back has started. Workload is a huge issue in academies as
many do not recognise unions or the teachers’ pay and conditions document.
My final message to all of you is to get involved with your local associations, take on
positions and get involved in the campaign against the privatisation of our public
services.
Betty Joseph
Black Members’ Constituency Seat Holder, 2010-2012