OK people, we need you to roar like you’ve never roared
before.
Why?
The Daily Mail has used its front page to attack teaching
unions.
Some background:
The NUT representative for Haringey in London is a woman
called Julie Davies. She has ruffled some feathers locally both by representing
her members effectively, and by supporting the Save Downhills campaign, which
caused Gove and his goons no end of grief.
Now two head teachers have said that they will no longer
accept Julie Davies as the NUT representative in Haringey.
This is obviously completely unacceptable. The whole basis of teaching
unions is democracy, and the NUT members in Haringey voted in Julie Davies as
their representative. Heads cannot dictate who represents NUT members in
Haringey, only the union members themselves can.
When strike action is taken locally, rather than at national
level, it is usual for that action to be ‘sustained’, i.e. the union concerned will
use funds set aside for the purpose to ensure that members aren’t
disproportionately penalised financially - as they are taking action over and
above national action.
The NUT in Haringey is not “paying teachers to strike,” they
are using union funds, set aside for the purpose, to defend the rights of all
members. It is a clear point of principle that heads cannot decide who
represents union members. The very idea undermines all teaching unions and that’s
why it’s absolutely necessary for NUT members in Haringey to take strike action
– they do so on behalf of all of us!
Here at TeacherROAR we are a huge supporter of all the
teaching unions. They are the last bastion against the likes of Gove and have
had considerable success in slowing down his ‘reforms’. We cannot allow them to
be undermined in this way.
The Daily Mail are using this dispute, and twisting the
truth, to further their agenda to damage and weaken the teaching unions. We
need to show them that we will not tolerate this.
So what can you do to show your disgust at the actions of
the Daily Mail?
- Join in our Twitterstorm at 9pm tonight (12 November). Express your disgust for @DailyMailUK using the hashtag #HateMail
- If you use Facebook post messages expressing your concerns on the Daily Mail page https://www.facebook.com/DailyMail
- Send email messages of support to admin@haringeyteachers.org.uk
