The National Education Union has set itself on a fresh collision course with its sister unions after its conference voted to defy an agreement signed in 2017 and begin actively recruiting support staff.
Around 60,000 of the NEU’s 460,000 members are support staff, but the union is not recognised as part of the National Joint Council which agrees their pay.
The NEU was formed in 2017 by a merger of the National Union of Teachers and Association of Teachers and Lecturers. The NUT did not allow support staff members, but around 30,000 in the ATL joined the new union.
At the time of its formation, the NEU signed an agreement with Unison, the GMB and Unite not to actively recruit their current or recent members. But as the union has grown in popularity, its support staff numbers have swelled.
‘Cease all attempts to appease sister unions’
At its conference in Harrogate this week, the union voted through a motion calling on its ruling executive to “begin actively and openly recruiting with immediate effect” and “cease all attempts to appease our sister unions”.
The motion also calls on the leadership to “make our sister unions aware that this is a member-led union in which conference is the supreme authority, and that our leadership, executive and professional staff do not have the right to override that authority”.
It comes after repeated attempts by the union’s significant support staff activist base to persuade the executive to take a firmer line and fight to be able to fully represent them in pay talks.
The motion also said the executive should “use this as an opportunity to interrogate, and put into place systems that deal with, the inherent class conflict that exists in an industrial union representing all educators, including teachers, support staff and management”.
NEU accused of ‘class warfare’
Responding to this week’s motion, GMB national officer Mark Wilkinson, said: “GMB is one of three recognised unions for school support staff and is disappointed, though not surprised, that a teachers’ union is taking this course of action
“GMB wants to improve the working environment, pay, terms and conditions of workers by participating in the School Support Staff Negotiating Body – not by engaging in class warfare.”
A UNISON spokesperson said it would be “seeking urgent clarification from the NEU about what this means for future joint working.
“It’s both surprising and frankly confusing that the NEU seems to be taking this approach, which appears to undermine a longstanding TUC agreement.”
Speaking at the NEU’s conference yesterday, general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “We have doubled our support staff membership since the formation of the NEU. I want to double it again, and then double that, and then double that.
“Support staff join the NEU when we fight on the issues in schools relevant to them. So get out there and fight for them. Whether it’s on job creep, maternity, term time only contracts, because a fighting union is a union people join.”
He added the “vision I have for this union is a union of a million members. If you are in the school and not in the union, you should be in the NEU”.
Union already fined £150,000
It is not the first time the NEU has picked a fight with its sister unions over the issue.
In 2023, the NEU balloted support staff members. That same year, the union ran a high-profile successful ballot of teachers which saw eight days of national strike action.
Later in 2023 a Trades Union Congress panel ruled the ballot of support staff and campaign breached its principle that member unions cannot “knowingly and actively take into membership existing or recent members of another union”.
The NEU was ordered to pay Unison, the GMB and Unite more than £150,000.
The passing of the motion this week also caused rows on the conference floor, as it meant large parts of a further motion on support staff representation were ruled out of order.
The second motion, which was not debated, would have called for further negotiations with the other support staff unions.
NEU president Sarah Kilpatrick, who presided over the conference, told delegates any such negotiations “would be contingent on the NEU adhering to the 2017 agreement with the NJC unions”.
“Conference voted yesterday to begin actively and openly recruiting with immediate effect and to cease all attempts to appease our sister unions. That rules out negotiations with the NJC unions.”
Delegate Emma Farthing warned the vote meant the union was “now in dispute with the TUC”, and warned “our members’ subs will now go on fines”.
She pointed out the union hoped to be part of the school support staff negotiating body, which Labour plans to re-introduce. But the party “have said that they will only talk [to] and have unions that are affiliated with the TUC”.
None of the arguments made by delegates in favour of the motion have been included in article.
Appeasement and negotiation are different things. Nobody called to end negotiation with other unions. Nobody spoke in favour of leaving the TUC. They spoke about respecting and honouring the wishes of not only 60,000 support staff members but also the majority of delegates who voted for this motion and the previous motions from preceding conferences. How can we claim to be a labour union and then disenfranchise, sideline and silence 12% of our members (and their colleagues who supported them with their votes)?
The 2017 principles said we couldn’t recruit people who were recent members of sister unions. There are hundreds of thousands of support staff workers who are the lowest paid staff in education and who are currently unrepresented by any union and who have never been in a union. This motion sought to address that.
The TUC had recently negotiated a new set of 7 principles with the NEU and these were approved at national executive only a few weeks ago. The 7th principle enabled us to recruit at local level as part of collective action and organising in workplaces. So this motion does not contravene that principle.
However, another principle stipulated that the NEU would never be part of the SSSNB. Support staff members did not get consulted and would never have agreed to this principle if we had been. We don’t believe that the NEU having a seat at the table to negotiate on support staff terms and conditions or pay is detrimental to other unions or their members. We are a strong, fighting union and we would lend that strength to the collective battle for improved pay, funding, workload, recruitment/retention, and safe workplaces. When our national teachers’ strike resulted in a fully funded 6.5% pay increase it benefitted teachers from all unions, not just NEU members! And NEU support staff in their droves supported that strike by not crossing those picket lines, making that action even more impactful.
If our sister unions would cease their territorial squabbles and jealousy about membership fees, we could all work together to tackle the real problems affecting our society and education today. Had they mobilised their members to reach the necessary ballot thresholds, we’d have willingly gone out on strike in solidarity with them in 2023. We know that unions are stronger together and that benefits all the lay members, their workplaces and their students.
If the TUC fines us for standing up for our lowest paid workers and forces us to pay further fines out of their membership fees, shame on them. Trade unions are meant to hold the government to account and to apply their energy to that, how can our sister unions effectively negotiate for educational staff rights when they insist on leaving the largest education union in Europe out of the conversation? We are the only educational union for all staff in educational settings, we have a unique understanding of the demands, challenges and issues our membership faces.
There should be no conversations or decisions made about us, without us.