NUT Strike 5th July 2016
Dear Colleagues
Most of you will be aware of the outcome of the NUT national ballot in England. For those who missed the publication of the result, it is detailed below:
Total number of papers issued: 210,458 Total number of ballot papers returned: 51,530 (turnout 24.5%) Total number of spoiled papers: 27 Number voting ‘YES’: 47,218 Number voting ‘NO’: 4,285 Percentage voting ‘YES’: 91.7%
You will see that despite a less than 25% turnout the NUT still proposes to take strike action on 5 July. I have attached the advice we give to members in the event of another union taking industrial action and this advice is also on the website.
In case you are wondering here are a few points below why we will not be taking national strike action on 5 July.
The NASUWT is the only union to have been in continuous industrial action in furtherance of our trade dispute on pay, pensions, working conditions and workload and job loss since 2011.
We continue to pursue our trade dispute with the Secretary of State and are currently in bilateral talks.
There is no need for the NASUWT to reballot to take industrial action. Indeed, the NUT by doing so has abandoned its previous trade dispute and now has action in place which is supported by less than a quarter of its members.
The NUT has not balloted on pensions, meaning that we are the only union which is continuing in a trade dispute and action on this critical issue.
The NASUWT does not believe that a day of national strike action at this stage in the Summer term will have any impact and teachers, who have already suffered severe cuts in their pay, will be losing a day’s pay for no tangible benefit.
The issues which quite rightly make teachers angry, particularly pay cuts, excessive workload, punitive performance management policies and abuse of capability procedures, will still be there when those teachers who take strike action return to work the following day. The NASUWT action has been designed to provide the tools to empower members to challenge and defend themselves against those practices, through action short of strike action, day in day out. Where that has not brought about change, members have been supported to escalate to strike action to secure fair treatment and appropriate policies. Hundreds of days of strike action have been taken all over the country by NASUWT members in furtherance of this aim.
