Teachers sackings

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Solihull teachers are once again at the forefront of action over jobs -this time compulsory redundancy.

Last February Solihull Council announced cuts of £2.4 million to the education budget. This, the authorities announced, would mean a loss of 150 teaching jobs.

The teachers' response was a massive lobby of the Council attended by some 5,000 people. This forced the authority to rescind the cuts.

Now once again the Tory authority is planning redundancies which they claim is due to the teachers' way award of 7.5%.

32 jobs are set for the axe in the borouah, 17 in secondarv schools and 15 in primarv.

These cuts include deputy heads as well as classroom teachers.

The NUT's response was to declare unanimous support for a package of action which includes withdrawal of goodwill, liahtnina. half day and one-day strikes and prolonged strike action.

This is the first attempt in the country to make teachers redundant.., remains to be seen whether the National Union of Teachers will put itself at the head of this action in view of their continual claims that that compulsory redundancies are the issue on which the union will fight.

*A victory for Labour in Nottinghamshire in the county council elections has ensured the reinstatement of teacher Eileen Crosbie, who was sacked by the education authority when it was Tory-controlled for refusing to teach a nursery class without adequate assistance. Her stand against the cuts result ed in a campaign within the local NUT against her sacking.

The Labour Group have announced that she is to be reinstated.