We can’t let government failures be used to browbeat us into accepting unsafe working conditions. Unless we remain firm, infections and deaths will continue to rise.
We can be proud that we have helped to push the government back but the battle in schools is still far from over. We have to make sure that schools operate safely for the priority learners they will be teaching face-to-face and that staff are able to resist unacceptable workload demands …
The last few days have seen a monumental battle between members of the biggest education union, the National Education Union (NEU) – and the Tory government. Boris Johnson has yet again been forced into a massive U-turn.
Local Officers, reps and members have been working flat out since the call was made by the NEU that they should assert their contractual right not to attend an unsafe place of work.
NEU Executive announces emergency decision to call on members to exercise ‘Section 44’
Ministers still can’t bring themselves to admit to what is now surely blindingly obvious. If school-aged children are so widely infected, insisting that parents send them in to classes of thirty in badly-ventilated classrooms inevitably means that schools will be acting as a significant driver of wider community transmission.
Simply concluding that ‘there’s no mood’ leaves us exactly where we are now. Our demands will continue to be ignored. The NEU needs to build and lead struggle as a National Union
A lockdown that doesn’t include schools? This time, we can’t let them ignore us, this time we need to ballot for union-wide action.
The “Covid consensus” is finally starting to crumble. At last some opposition politicians are starting to speak out clearly about the woeful failure of the Tory Government to control the spread of the virus. But words alone can be ignored. So now it’s time for the NEU to back up words with action and call strike ballots in the worst affected areas.
As stress, workload and infection rates rise, we say: “If it’s not safe, call on your union to escalate!”