#nasuwt

This account on twitter has been increasingly doing my nut in recently- I get it was started with good intentions to share bad practice in schools, but calling yourself a “union rep without the fee” when you’re at best crowdsourcing advice from twitter (never mind certainly not doing any organising) is bloody annoying to those of us who are or have been actual union reps.

Anyway, a recent response to a tweet has made it clear they’re not even familiar with the school teachers pay and conditions (i.e. the document most teachers in England are employed under) and actively endorsing incorrect advice- which tips over the edge (for me) from annoying to dangerous. I’d hope any teacher would know to double check any advice you receive on twitter but I still think it’s pretty crap.

Meanwhile, it also undermines everything a union rep can actually do for you in education, and devaluing this potentially discourages people from joining unions, despite the fact that being in a big union at your school can have real benefits, such as:

1) Someone to support you should you ever be part of a disciplinary process or have an accusation made against you by a child or parent. Don’t think just because you know you will always behave well it won’t/can’t happen to you, unfortunately.

2) Someone to raise collective issues specific to your school/staff with leadership. When this is done informally, it means you don’t have to “stick your neck out” straight away, and by doing it collectively, it means your concerns have more weight.

3) Being part of national campaigns to improve working conditions for teachers and other education staff.

4) Access to legal and health and safety advice, should you need it (from people who are trained and actually know what they are talking about).

5) The NEU also offer their members a range of discounts on financial and legal advice that doesn’t relate to education- I’m sure other education unions do similar. (other teaching unions are available).

Anyway, if you work in education in any capacity (including support staff who aren’t directly student facing) then you can join the NEU. If you work in a student facing role, NASUWT also solely represent education staff. There are other options available, especially for support staff, but NEU and NASUWT tend to be the unions with a rep in school, which enables you to get the most out of your union.

NASUWT are using their ballot to carry out action short of a strike.

But what he's failing to acknowledge is a lot of children aren't getting a good quality education whilst they are in school.

Imagine a school which has a vacancy for a teacher on maternity leave, but can't recruit to fill it. Those children are then taught by non specialist supply for the whole year, usually not even a consistent person. If it's a practical subject, they probably miss out on practical elements, or have to swap/combine with other classes - so then multiple children are affected.

Then what about if they're being taught by an ECT who decides the level of work isn't worth it for the quite low wages and quits (as many ECTs do)? Again, likely supply and non specialist teachers for the rest of the year.

And this has a knock on impact on the rest of the department, and can contribute to stress and burnout in those teachers. Other people start to think about leaving.

Schools increasingly can't fill permanent vacancies in some subjects. There's a 14% vacancy in jobs being advertised in this time last year. And because of the fall in people entering teaching many of those won't be filled. And it can become a vicious cycle for a school - when too many people leave a department, or good HoD is lost, the department collapses.

It has been hard to recruit maths and science teachers for a long time. MFL and some other subjects too. Outside of history and PE, no secondary subject is recruiting enough trainees to meet DfE predictions of what will be needed. If we want secondary age children to continue to be taught by degree educated subject specialist professionals, something has to change.

Is pay the only problem? No, of course not. And any strike would be over workload and working conditions too. But pay is a simple thing to strike over.

If a the Tory government want to live in a capitalist economy, then they have to acknowledge supply and demand. The wages they offer teachers are not enough to recruit enough new teachers, and after years of pay freezes, not enough to keep teachers in the profession either.

The initial pay offer would be a 3% rise for the majority of teachers who've spent the last year having a real terms cut in wages. The offer for ECTs was supposed to be inflation beating, but now RPI inflation (the one that reflects what people actually buy) is higher than that offer at 11%.

It's also worth bearing in mind that teachers do get a lot of deductions from their salaries (as many people do, of course) - student loans, usually 4 years worth, pension as well as tax etc. And yes, our pensions are good, but I'm considering opting out of mine because I could really use that money each month.

Hey NEU members, don't forget to look out for your ballot this week!

Don't forget the NAHT are balloting alongside us and NASUWT are balloting soon.

This is a statement from NASUWT who today lost their strike ballot on grounds of turnout, despite a strong vote in favour of striking.

Whilst the anti-union legislation is shit, it also highlights the importance of organising as a union.

I don’t like to criticise another union, but everyone I know involved with the NEU has been working their arses off to get turnout high, to sort out replacement ballots, to make sure membership lists are up to date and we’re not counting people who are no longer teachers in the ballot etc. etc. etc.

I haven’t seen much of that from NASUWT. Obviously you don’t see all a union is doing from the outside BUT

If, on Monday, NEU manage to reach threshold where NASUWT haven’t, then it is a lesson to other unions on how important it is not just to take your membership for granted.

I really hate to slag off other unions, but NASUWT really are a bunch of scabs.

The NEU take action, and NASUWT undermine it. This isn’t the first time it has happened.

No wonder 50,000 of their members have already joined the NEU.