How kind of the teaching unions to get us all in the mood for Christmas with a nice big pantomime. The latest amusing drama from the NUT and NASUWT is over a meeting that they’re supposed to be having with Michael Gove about their ongoing industrial dispute. This dispute, if you will remember, nearly led to the unions holding nationwide strikes over performance-related pay. But those strikes were called off on the offer of more talks with Gove.
Now the talks themselves are mired in a row over who has been invited: the NASUWT and NUT do not want representatives from other unions coming along because they feel the dispute is specific to their unions (and the other unions tend to be far less militant and in some cases, such as the NAHT, supportive of performance-related pay). So now they are arguing with the government over the guest list for talks that were supposed to resolve the original row.
This has been played out over a series of very terse letters between NUT/NASUWT and Gove, the latest of which hit the postboxes today. Earlier this week, the general secretaries of the two unions, Chris Keates and Christine Blower, wrote to Gove saying:
‘We have made clear to you in our letters of 11 November and 14 November our position on attending meetings with other unions.
‘You should be clear that meetings set up specifically with the NASUWT and the NUT to discuss the substance of our disputes are more likely to lead to the resolution of our trade disputes.
‘We regret your prevarication. Rather than seeking to address the serious concerns exemplified by our trade disputes, you are playing games which are not in the interests of children and young people or the teaching profession.’
Today Gove has replied, saying:
‘Thank you for your letter of 25 November. The first meeting for all organisations representing teachers to discuss implementation of our policies has been arranged in December. My officials will be in touch to discuss proposed dates and to confirm attendance.’
It isn’t yet clear whether the unions will attend these talks. So the meeting organised to address the specific gripes of the NUT/NASUWT may well go ahead without these unions attending, but with other representatives. Which doesn’t seem a particularly productive way of resolving a dispute.
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