NUT chiefs won't fight Tories

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By dele almost 3:1 gates NUT to the Special Salaries Conference voted to accept the sell-out "negotiated" by Fred Jarvis and his team.

For 69 minutes Jarvis laboriously detailed every minute-by-minute twist and turn of the protracted salary 'campaign' which ended on May 21st when he accepted the offer of 9.3% + £6 on account along with the reference of the 36.5% claim to the Clegg Comparability Board.

This will pay the rest of the offer in 2 stages-Jan 1980 and September 1980.

At the Redder Tape Jarvis was point out why worse than at pains to this offer is the nurses' Wilshire ("public support stronger") or the servants' ("they were was civil able to hit at the He warned that neither the manual workers in NUPE nor the Scottish teachers had secured better offers in spite of their protracted strike actions.

No action called He failed to mention, of course, how the leaderships of the manual workers had -like Jarvis himself-refused to call all-out indefinite strike action, or that in one area where such action did take place-Camden-NUPE Council workers won almost the whole £60 35-hourweek claim.

Speakers from pi representing local NUT Associations which have voted to reject the offersuch as a 200-strong meeting in Leeds-demanded to know why the Executive had not taken up the call from at least 50 branches to organise strike action.

Budget

They pointed out. that the latest Budget announcement by the Tories. hit even harder at teachers living standards and jobs.

The importance of this move by the Tories was not lost on Executive member Alf Wilshire, who proposed the motion to accept the offer.

First to fight?

He argued that to fight against the Tories on wages and the cuts will mean taking on the government "and does anyone seriously believe that teachers should be the first ones to do that?"

After a move by the President, Murphy, not to count the votes because "any division in the Union might be used by Casey of the NAS for recruitment purposes" , a division was called for by a sufficient number of delegates and a card vote taken.

With some right wing delegates breaking their branches' mandates and supporting the offer the card vote was announ‹ ed as 188,00:67,000.

Call to account

A clear assessment must be made of the moves by the Executive over this period, and every Executive member must be called up to account for their actions and votes.

Anyone not willing to lead a serious fight to regain teachers' living standards must be thrown out at the forthcoming Executive A leadership must be elected which wi Il fight for teachers' wages, jobs and the expansion of: the education service.