Members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) today took strike action over threats of job losses at Haggerston School in Hackney, east London. The action followed a ballot last month that saw a 100% turnout. With 36 out of 37 ballots in favour of discontinuous strike action, the determination of the teachers is clear.
This militancy was demonstrated by a lively morning picket attended by teachers and parents at the school gates.
Eleven teachers have been told that they could be made redundant, including teachers who have dedicated over twenty years to the serving the school and its community. Unsurprisingly, three part-time posts are threatened - highlighting the fact that employees on temporary contracts are always the first to be targetted when jobs are on the line.
The proposed cuts stem from a management plan put in place to recover a budget deficit. These "restructuring measures" concocted by the governors and the senior management are part of an industry-wide assault intended to make teachers and support staff pay the price for managerial incompetence.
However, angry teachers say that there was £1.3m left over in the school budget in June last year. This is a colossal sum for any school to fritter away - let alone a school in the heart of one of the most deprived areas of London. Where has this money gone?
One teacher spoke of the outrage of staff and parents over the behaviour of management towards teachers involved in the dispute. As reported in the Hackney Gazette, some teachers were given their notice of dismissal by courier. In one example a taxi was hired (at a cost of £80) to deliver notice of redundancy to a teacher in front of colleagues and students as she supervised a school Sports' Day.
The anger of teachers at Haggerston is compounded by allegations of petty and vindictive behaviour towards staff by a management secure in their employment prospects.
The behaviour of the manangement and the governors in this dispute should be monitered closely by unions. A vote of no confidence by three unions recently forced the sacking of a headteacher at a flagship Academy in Cumbria. This tactic should be considered by all teachers fighting against profit-minded managements determined to run our schools for the benefit of private individuals rather than in the best interests of the students and staff.
Education is not a place for the government to turn when it needs to raise quick funds. Working people and the youth have no affinity with foreign wars, nuclear weapons or pan-handling bankers. If the government persists in keeping it's wretched free-market on life support, then it can find the money elsewhere.
This government must wake up to the fact that only a massive investment in education will secure an acceptable post-recession future for the youth of Britain. Gordon Brown may take tea with Thatcher, but he must learn from the mistakes of the '80's when an entire generation was condemned to long-term unemployment as a result of the pillaging of education during the recession.
For a massive program of investment in education and public works, to provide socially useful labour and employment.
For key industries to be under the control of those who work in and use them- clearly the capitalists will stop at nothing to satisfy their craven greed. In insisting on imposing their free market on our young people, they show us nothing but the depths of their contempt.
We must similarly demonstrate our contempt for their determination to run our entire educational system into the ground.
This militancy was demonstrated by a lively morning picket attended by teachers and parents at the school gates.
Eleven teachers have been told that they could be made redundant, including teachers who have dedicated over twenty years to the serving the school and its community. Unsurprisingly, three part-time posts are threatened - highlighting the fact that employees on temporary contracts are always the first to be targetted when jobs are on the line.
The proposed cuts stem from a management plan put in place to recover a budget deficit. These "restructuring measures" concocted by the governors and the senior management are part of an industry-wide assault intended to make teachers and support staff pay the price for managerial incompetence.
However, angry teachers say that there was £1.3m left over in the school budget in June last year. This is a colossal sum for any school to fritter away - let alone a school in the heart of one of the most deprived areas of London. Where has this money gone?
One teacher spoke of the outrage of staff and parents over the behaviour of management towards teachers involved in the dispute. As reported in the Hackney Gazette, some teachers were given their notice of dismissal by courier. In one example a taxi was hired (at a cost of £80) to deliver notice of redundancy to a teacher in front of colleagues and students as she supervised a school Sports' Day.
The anger of teachers at Haggerston is compounded by allegations of petty and vindictive behaviour towards staff by a management secure in their employment prospects.
The behaviour of the manangement and the governors in this dispute should be monitered closely by unions. A vote of no confidence by three unions recently forced the sacking of a headteacher at a flagship Academy in Cumbria. This tactic should be considered by all teachers fighting against profit-minded managements determined to run our schools for the benefit of private individuals rather than in the best interests of the students and staff.
Education is not a place for the government to turn when it needs to raise quick funds. Working people and the youth have no affinity with foreign wars, nuclear weapons or pan-handling bankers. If the government persists in keeping it's wretched free-market on life support, then it can find the money elsewhere.
This government must wake up to the fact that only a massive investment in education will secure an acceptable post-recession future for the youth of Britain. Gordon Brown may take tea with Thatcher, but he must learn from the mistakes of the '80's when an entire generation was condemned to long-term unemployment as a result of the pillaging of education during the recession.
For a massive program of investment in education and public works, to provide socially useful labour and employment.
For key industries to be under the control of those who work in and use them- clearly the capitalists will stop at nothing to satisfy their craven greed. In insisting on imposing their free market on our young people, they show us nothing but the depths of their contempt.
We must similarly demonstrate our contempt for their determination to run our entire educational system into the ground.
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