Justine Greening looks set to be spared a major campaign of national strikes in schools during her first full term as education secretary, TES can reveal.
Low turn-outs in previous strike ballots, the government’s U-turn over forced universal academisation and a desire to wait and see what Ms Greening will do in the role - are all conspiring against the joint industrial action that some union leaders and activists had hoped to launch this autumn.
The ATL and NUT teaching unions, heads’ union the NAHT and support staff union Unison all backed motions moving towards industrial action at their conferences earlier this year.
The NUT went on to stage a national one-day strike in July and talks with other school staff unions have continued ever since in an attempt to coordinate joint action for this term.
But TES understands that the NUT has been struggling to enlist other unions for a strike. This week, senior NUT figures privately admitted that joint action was their preference but there were growing doubts over whether it could be achieved before Christmas.
“Of course we would have more weight if we [took joint action],” said one. “It would be a big decision to do it alone.”
It is understood that some school staff unions have already rebuffed the NUT’s approaches for combined action this term.
The NUT has not yet ruled out unilateral action this autumn. The union’s ballot from earlier this year would give it the legal authority to do so.
But as NUT national executive members prepare to meet next Friday to discuss the “right time” to strike, a delay looks increasingly likely.
One source said that there would be a desire to speak to new ministers first before making a decision.
“It would make no sense at all if we said the government was refusing to listen to us before speaking to them first,” they said, adding that delaying action until as late as next spring was “not impossible”.
Cross-union support
Next weekend’s Trades Union Congress conference in Brighton and the chancellor’s autumn statement in November may also have a bearing on the NUT’s final decision.
Waiting for these would leave the union very little time to organise another strike this term.
Kevin Courtney, NUT general secretary, told TES: “At the right time, we would [go out on our own] but we haven’t yet decided.
“We want to build a really significant public campaign [on funding and teacher contracts]. We would like it to be with other unions.
“It is important for us to understand what other unions are doing and it is still not totally clear what unions will do.”
One senior teaching union source said they believed that the government’s U-turn on forced universal academisation earlier this year had made it harder to secure support for more action.
They pointed towards the low turn-out in the NUT’s recent ballot on strike action - only 24.5 per cent of the union’s 210,000 members voted - which came after the academisation U-turn.
“I think as soon as forced academisation was disputed, then it took the momentum out of that vote,” the source said.
“It would be very difficult to say what you are balloting for. My view is that there would not be strong support for further action.”
A number of school staff unions are waiting for Ms Greening’s decisions on the expansion of the academies programme, and the outcome of the national school funding formula consultation, before committing themselves.
But the new Trade Union Act, passed in May, will come into effect at the end of this year and make future action much harder. It would have prevented the NUT’s July strike over the threat of deregulation of teachers’ pay and conditions through academisation (see box, “The new Trade Union Act”, below).
Some unions do not believe that the momentum has disappeared entirely. Fiona Farmer, national officer for local authorities for Unite, the country’s biggest trade union, told TES: “I think there has been a pause and a ‘let’s see what happens’.”
However, currently Unite does not have any plans to take immediate industrial action alongside the NUT.
Ms Farmer added: “It’s whether we can get our members’ support opposing academisation and retaining national and collective bargaining. Normally we take action over pay.”
