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Important successes boost EIS campaign
There is something of a celebratory tone to this month’s edition of the SEJ, with several recent successes in EIS campaigning boosting the morale of all those involved.
The highest profile success was the recent major win in Glasgow, where strong and effective campaigning by EIS Glasgow local association, with national support from EIS HQ, together with collegiate working with parent groups, led to a very welcome halt to the city council’s programme of education cuts.
The scale of the potential cuts in Glasgow was quite horrifying, with around 10% of the city’s teacher workforce having been scheduled to be lost – with deeply damaging consequences for education across the city, and for the young people in Glasgow’s schools.
With a legal challenge to the plans, initiated by parents and supported by the EIS, having failed to halt the council cuts, the EIS stepped up its campaign by balloting for industrial action.
A resounding yes vote from EIS members in a ballot earlier this year led to an initial scheduled day of strike action for February. But, shortly before this day of action was due to take place, an offer came to cancel the planned cuts, and to work to reverse those cuts that had already taken place.
EIS Glasgow suspended its action, as a show of good faith, until the council set its final budget and confirmed the cancellation of the cuts. With this confirmation now in place, the EIS has won a major victory against cuts, and without an industrial action shot having been fired in anger.
The victory in Glasgow followed an earlier success in Falkirk, where the local authority ditched its cost-cutting plans to reduce the learning week by 10%, to cut teacher numbers by the same percentage, to reduce ASN support, and to scale back early years provision. Again, strong campaigning by teachers and parents were key to this reversal from the council.
As the EIS has been highlighting, Instrumental Music continues to be one of the most at risk elements of education across the country, with several local authorities seeing it as a soft target for potential cuts.
Again working with parents, and with musicians and music groups, EIS local associations have been staging robust defence of Instrumental Music provision across the country.
Three EIS local associations have recently achieved successes in their battles to protect instrumental music, with cuts in Midlothian, Perth and Kinross, and Stirling being stopped by effective and coordinated local campaigning.
Despite this success, Instrumental Music remains very much under threat across the country, and the EIS recently launched a national petition, calling on the Scottish Government to Stand Up for Quality Music Education. Every EIS member is encouraged to sign the petition to support this hugely important campaign.
As we also highlight in this edition, effective EIS campaigning would be far more difficult if it were not for the support and resources provided by the EIS political fund. Such a fund is a legal requirement for any union which wants to campaign on any issue that might be viewed as ‘political’. By operating a political fund, the EIS is protected from legal challenges to its campaigning work, and has the resources to fight effective campaigns on the issues that matter to members.
Contributing to the political fund is optional and, at a cost of just £1.80 per member per year, is something every member should seriously consider to guarantee that the EIS can continue to run effective campaigns on all the key issues.
