No to management bullying – building for strike action in Coventry

Coventry NUT’s AGM tonight congratulated members at John Gulson school for the 14 days of strike action they had taken against a bullying management trying to impose unacceptable policies. However, as the meeting discussed, thanks to Gove’s performance-pay legislation, this could be the kind of bitter dispute that teachers face in schools right across England and Wales.

In Coventry, in my own Lewisham Association, and elsewhere, the NUT is ready to support schools in taking this kind of sustained strike action if Governors seek to impose unacceptable pay and appraisal policies. Above all, NUT reps and local officers are building for united action in October - and beyond – in a battle to reverse Gove’s divisive legislation altogether.

The meeting made plans for the regional action being held across the Midlands next Tuesday including organising picket lines, placard-making, leafleting parents and travelling together to the local rally in Birmingham.

Support from parents interviewed in the local paper has already encouraged Coventry teachers that the public will be behind them (see http://electmartin1.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/yes-michael-gove-unbearable.html ).

The meeting also took nominations for National Officers, and I’m pleased to report that this was my thirty-sixth nomination for the Vice-President election.