Eileen and Natara Hunter
“An injury to one is an injury to all”
This is the text of the leaflet distributed at NUT Conference. The support for Eileen and Natara Hunter and their brand of fighting trade unionism is growing.
After yesterday’s debate on management bullying, many Conference delegates will have been left wondering why a Union President, so keen to tell us that women should assert themselves, should then so harshly silence Eileen Hunter, a delegate from Birmingham, when she tried to seek a reassurance that the Union would defend anyone disciplined for what they had said from the Conference rostrum.
Delegates are also asking what is being done to defend two active union members, mother and daughter, who have been dismissed from their posts.
Both Eileen and Natara are pursuing employment tribunals against their dismissals but, under our harsh employment law, even if their cases are “won”, this is by no means a guarantee that they will win their jobs back. They have felt that they have had to fight at every stage even to get the Union to support them this far.
It is not appropriate to go into the specific details of the cases in this leaflet but there is one thing that Eileen and Natara are quite clear about. They believe that Eileen was dismissed because she refused to be cowed by a bullying school management and continued to speak up and organise as a fighting school rep. In turn, they believe that management also did not want her daughter to remain on the staff either.
In seven years Eileen had built the NUT membership from five to forty three, as well as encouraging the support staff to become unionised and fight off the threat of job cuts.
For acting as a rep, and speaking out at both school union group meetings and at last year’s NUT Conference, Eileen was charged with jeopardising the future of her school and undermining its management. If this is grounds to lose your job, then this a threat that could be made by a hostile management to many active reps and Conference delegates.
One of the main pieces of evidence against Eileen was reports made in the national press last Easter quoting from a speech she made at the Gateshead NUT conference, daring to criticise the disciplinary system and high number of exclusions which had been implemented in her school federation. But what price freedom of speech if your opinions are then used to help sack you?
Small wonder Eileen sought to ask her question yesterday. Small wonder why Eileen and Natara want to be sure that if union reps put their heads above the parapet against a bullying management that the Union will use all its resources to defend them against victimisation. If not, then which teacher will want to become a rep? How will the Union be built and maintained in the divided and harshly managed school system which this Government seeks to impose?
Conference rightly voted for the Union to confront management bullying with a collective response. But that policy must be put into practice. When our union reps are – as too often – at the receiving end, then they must be confident that the NUT will stand firmly behind them, not just with advice and legal support but also by offering and encouraging strike action.
Eileen and Natara can be contacted on
07876 361128
This is the text of the leaflet distributed at NUT Conference. The support for Eileen and Natara Hunter and their brand of fighting trade unionism is growing.
After yesterday’s debate on management bullying, many Conference delegates will have been left wondering why a Union President, so keen to tell us that women should assert themselves, should then so harshly silence Eileen Hunter, a delegate from Birmingham, when she tried to seek a reassurance that the Union would defend anyone disciplined for what they had said from the Conference rostrum.
Delegates are also asking what is being done to defend two active union members, mother and daughter, who have been dismissed from their posts.
Both Eileen and Natara are pursuing employment tribunals against their dismissals but, under our harsh employment law, even if their cases are “won”, this is by no means a guarantee that they will win their jobs back. They have felt that they have had to fight at every stage even to get the Union to support them this far.
It is not appropriate to go into the specific details of the cases in this leaflet but there is one thing that Eileen and Natara are quite clear about. They believe that Eileen was dismissed because she refused to be cowed by a bullying school management and continued to speak up and organise as a fighting school rep. In turn, they believe that management also did not want her daughter to remain on the staff either.
In seven years Eileen had built the NUT membership from five to forty three, as well as encouraging the support staff to become unionised and fight off the threat of job cuts.
For acting as a rep, and speaking out at both school union group meetings and at last year’s NUT Conference, Eileen was charged with jeopardising the future of her school and undermining its management. If this is grounds to lose your job, then this a threat that could be made by a hostile management to many active reps and Conference delegates.
One of the main pieces of evidence against Eileen was reports made in the national press last Easter quoting from a speech she made at the Gateshead NUT conference, daring to criticise the disciplinary system and high number of exclusions which had been implemented in her school federation. But what price freedom of speech if your opinions are then used to help sack you?
Small wonder Eileen sought to ask her question yesterday. Small wonder why Eileen and Natara want to be sure that if union reps put their heads above the parapet against a bullying management that the Union will use all its resources to defend them against victimisation. If not, then which teacher will want to become a rep? How will the Union be built and maintained in the divided and harshly managed school system which this Government seeks to impose?
Conference rightly voted for the Union to confront management bullying with a collective response. But that policy must be put into practice. When our union reps are – as too often – at the receiving end, then they must be confident that the NUT will stand firmly behind them, not just with advice and legal support but also by offering and encouraging strike action.
Eileen and Natara can be contacted on
07876 361128
posted by Derek McMillan at
7:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home