Permanent Revolution

Jason on Mon 19, May 2008 @ 20:47

Jason — 2008-05-19 20:47:15

This is good news.

Some on, even those supposedly left, in the NUT had been using the excuse of waiting for the Unison ballot to delay the NUT ballot. I'm far from convinced this will change the situation enough but it may push a couple of waverers to vote for a ballot and certainly deprive them of an otherwise convenient excuse.

The idea for meetings seems good. Perhaps out of these if they can be organised ther could be a push for a revival of Unison left? The NUT exec meets in 3 days time. The tasks for NUT militants and how we link up with Unison and other public sector workers will become clearer.

Meanwhile Unite is ballotting local government workers on strike action in England, Wales and the north of Ireland.

Kirstie on Mon 19, May 2008 @ 20:49

Kirstie — 2008-05-19 20:49:57

At our quorate general meeting tonight, Greenwich NUT members unanimously supported a motion to go the the NUT Executive meeting this Thursday 22 May at Hamilton House to demand that they call a ballot for discontinuous action in pursuit of our pay claim to take place on the same day as the planned Unison strike. The fact that Unison may be taking action on 8/9 July should make NUT executive members realise why it is so important not to lose the momentum and do nothing until September. It would be madness to have a situation where low paid support and catering staff are out on strike while teachers go into work. We should put maximum efforts to pressure our Exec to call the ballot. But if they refuse then we must start organising joint meetings of public sector unions now, so that we can build a united fight over pay. By calling on Unison to mount picket lines, we can take unoffical action at the school gates on the 8/9 July if the strike goes ahead. A committment to this sort of grass roots solidarity is likely to win support for the Unison strike and show that as rank and file activists we can take action, even when our 'cautious' union leadership bottles it. Kirstie Paton President of Greenwich NUT

Jason on Tue 20, May 2008 @ 20:01

Jason — 2008-05-20 20:01:01

Good points, Kirstie. GMB are now holding consultation meetings on whether to ballot as well.

Of course if Unison members strike in July then we should definitely push for pickets and refuse to cross them- obviously we can't work on a site without a site manager- health and safety. However, even better than this argument is the number one rule of trade unionism- never cross a picket line!

Of course an official ballot is even better but we may have to be prepared to build action from the bottom up, rank and file level, how the union was build in the first place.

Jason on Thu 22, May 2008 @ 20:25

Jason — 2008-05-22 20:25:48

Unfortunately but predictably the NUT executive have voted against having a summer ballot, though the scale of the defeat 28 to 9 shows that the executive is quite dramatically out of touch with the membership. From here I think the only way forward is to build from the base, cross union committees, large meetings demanding action and organising it where we can.

George B on Thu 22, May 2008 @ 23:51

George B — 2008-05-22 23:51:55

To be frank the decision by the NUT Executive, however out of touch it might be with the views of rank and file NUT members, is a bit of a blow to those working to win a clear-cut "yes" vote in UNISON. The old T&G section of UNITE is also balloting for strike action, though the GMB is thus far only consulting its members in local government on the 2.45% offer, without a recommendation. Obviously, we in UNISON need to be demanding of NUT associations that members honour picket lines in the event of a strike, but there remains a job of work to do in convincing many UNISON members that it is actually possible to extract a real pay rise out of the local authority employers and the government.