THE TORY government has imposed a Pay Review Body' on teachers. This is the latest, and probably the most significant, attack on organised teachers.
It has come in the context of massive demoralisation among the workforce, as a result of the Tory offensive against education and the lack of response from trade union leaders.
Kenneth Clarke has railroaded the legislation through under the banner of 'teacher professionalism' and the need to liscourage industrial action. Ac to Clarke, this will be lone through giving teachers the same pay machinery as the medical profession.
Comparing the average classroom teacher with doctors and dentists is not just an unrealistic exercise. It should be borne in mind that both these groups have suffered reductions in pay levels under the Tories Impose awards.
The Pay Review Body will be a continuation of the Interim Advisory Committee, set up after the defeat of the teachers pay campaign in 1987 to impose pay awards in line with government limits.
The legislation gives the government the right to amend the review body's recommendations in any way it sees fit. It covers conditions of service as well as pay, and will allow the introduction of 'Appraisal' of teachers to be linked to pay and disciplinary matters.
Despite the fact that the proposals ContraVeno the Charter of the International Labour Organisation, the Labour front bench is seriously opposing them. They are complicit in the denial of basic trade union rights to a significant section of the public sector worktorce.
'Independent'
In addition, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) is the only one of six teacher organisations to oppose the bill. Even the leadership of the TUC-affiliated NAS-UWT is going along with it, claiming that the body will be independent and will not affect teachers' right to strike. However, though the legislation does not touch on this, it is clearly the objective of Clarke and the Tories.
Activists from the Socialist Teachers Alliance and the CamFighting Union, horati been naving deer outmanoeuvred in the recent ballot over action against the SATs tests, will be making determined efforts to ensure that the NUT leadership now holds the line.
This cannot be a foregone con lusion, given that the union executive's first response to Clarke's announcement was to ditch their own conference policy of campaigning for the restoration oregotiating rights.
The 'Broad that dominates the executive are unable to control General Secretary Doug Mcavoy and have no strategy beyond 'waiting for Labour Like The Guardian, the paper 'sympathetic' to teachers, the Labour leaders continue to attack the NUT if it does anything that hints of confrontation. ditional pressure as a result of the decision of two non-TUC teachers associations, AMMA and the PAT (a no-strike organisation), to merge, forming the largest teachers' organisation.
This will be promoted as a 'non-political' alternative to the 'left wing' NUT. The future of trade unionism among teachers is at stake.
Condemn
Labour movement activists should argue for their organisations to condemn both the imposition of the pay review body and the role of the Labour front bench.
Among teachers, NUT activists need to take the arguments into the classrooms - particularly with NAS-UWT members around 'professionalism', levels of pay and conditions of service.
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