Industrial Workers of the World One Big Union

We've just seen the biggest set of education strikes in years. Lecturers striking over pay, teachers in the NUT striking over restructuring, clerical staff in UNISON striking for their pensions. And what has been the response of the unions? The lecturers have been sold down the river for a fraction of a percentage more, teachers have been forced to fight school by school, clerical and support staff ordered back to work on the promise of further talks.

The following is a report from an IWW member who works in the education sector, written just after a public meeting in the sunmmer of 2006.

This evening Sally and I attended a meeting in Oldham to discuss plans to create Academy schools in Oldaham. This will mean the merging of four schools into two - this includes a school we both work at (that's nepotism for you:)).