I welcome the news that the NUT and ATL decided yesterday at separate conferences to ballot their members on the two bodies amalagamating to form the National Education Union. This is absolutely essential at a time when government polcies on funding, grammar schools and academisation need strong opposition. There is some background HERE
Particular congratulations must go to local teacher trade unionists Jean and Hank Roberts who have been campaigning for this outcome for many years.
This is the NUT's statement after yesterday's decisions:
The NUT and ATL held special conferences on Saturday 5 November at which delegates welcomed the progress made in negotiations on the amalgamation of the two unions to form a new union. The conferences endorsed the rules of the new union, to be called the National Education Union. This decision will now be put to the members of both unions for approval in ballots to be held in the spring term.
In welcoming the decisions of the two conferences General Secretary, Kevin Courtney, said: “This is an historic day for teacher trade unionism. We have advocated professional unity for many years, and this is a big step towards realising our goal of a strong unified profession and a powerful union which would be a significant force for teachers, education and the trade union movement.”
This document answers frequently asked questions about the moves towards professional unity on the part of the ATL and NUT.
The National Union of Teachers has been pursuing the policy of trade union unity for all teachers for many years. We believe that all teachers in all schools in England and Wales should be united in one organisation. It makes sense for a number of reasons.
The new union would have almost half a million members and would be a powerful force in education and the trade union movement. The government and employers would need to take such an organisation seriously and would not be able to deploy the policy of divide and rule. The new organisation would be more economical to run and would target members' subscriptions on matters important to teachers and education rather than on competitive recruitment between the unions.
For these reasons we have an open invitation to all other teachers' unions to come and talk about setting up a new union for all teachers for a more effective and efficient means of representing the profession.
Particular congratulations must go to local teacher trade unionists Jean and Hank Roberts who have been campaigning for this outcome for many years.
This is the NUT's statement after yesterday's decisions:
The NUT and ATL held special conferences on Saturday 5 November at which delegates welcomed the progress made in negotiations on the amalgamation of the two unions to form a new union. The conferences endorsed the rules of the new union, to be called the National Education Union. This decision will now be put to the members of both unions for approval in ballots to be held in the spring term.
In welcoming the decisions of the two conferences General Secretary, Kevin Courtney, said: “This is an historic day for teacher trade unionism. We have advocated professional unity for many years, and this is a big step towards realising our goal of a strong unified profession and a powerful union which would be a significant force for teachers, education and the trade union movement.”
This document answers frequently asked questions about the moves towards professional unity on the part of the ATL and NUT.The National Union of Teachers has been pursuing the policy of trade union unity for all teachers for many years. We believe that all teachers in all schools in England and Wales should be united in one organisation. It makes sense for a number of reasons.
The new union would have almost half a million members and would be a powerful force in education and the trade union movement. The government and employers would need to take such an organisation seriously and would not be able to deploy the policy of divide and rule. The new organisation would be more economical to run and would target members' subscriptions on matters important to teachers and education rather than on competitive recruitment between the unions.
For these reasons we have an open invitation to all other teachers' unions to come and talk about setting up a new union for all teachers for a more effective and efficient means of representing the profession.
Well done, Hank and Jean. ATL will have come a long way since they were AMMA, the Official wing to the PAT Provisionals ( Vision Statement:'We promise we will never strike/ So piss on us just as much as you like').
ReplyDeleteAnd I've stress-tested the NEU (new!) acronym for any potential embarrassments. None found except for the 1970s German band, purveyors of what, in those more linguistically robust times, was termed 'krautrock'.
Mike Hine