Ray Goodspeed (Leyton and Wanstead CLP) reports from the long-running teachers’ picket line at Oaks Park School, in Newbury Park, in the east London Borough of Redbridge.
Oaks Park is a comprehensive secondary school, directly managed by Redbridge Council – which is Labour-run. The early-morning picket was really lively with chanting, singing and two (!) trumpet players, plus, just for today, loads of homemade treats for Diwali – the day traditionally when light triumphs over darkness and good triumphs over evil!
Ray spoke to Venda Premkumar, the secretary of Redbridge National Education Union
R – Can you tell us what the strike is about. Why did it start?
V – It started because one of the union reps at the school, Keiron Mahon, was dismissed and it was clearly an unfair dismissal because the charges against him were grossly overstated and exaggerated. The head teacher clearly just wanted to get him out of the school and found any excuse to do that. What should have been treated as an informal matter, a minor mistake, was exaggerated to look like a gross misconduct and he was sacked on that basis.
R – And was that connected to the Covid situation or the s.44 notices that staff served?
V – We believe the reason he was victimised in this way was because of the stance that he took alongside his co-rep and 25 other members of staff during the lockdown when the head was challenged about forcing all the staff members to come into school [in January- RG], breaking lockdown rules, when most of the other schools allowed teachers to work from home.
Breaking lockdown rules
R – So how long have teachers been out on strike?
V – This is day twenty-six and it’s been going for 5 months now.
R – So that is before the summer and into the new term?
V – Yeah. We were hoping to resolve it at the end of the last academic term. Unfortunately, that did not happen. We have been trying our very best to initiate talks with the local authority, who are negotiating on behalf of the head, but we haven’t reached an agreement.
R – And this is a directly managed local authority school, of a Labour Council. What role has the Labour Council in Redbridge played?
Dismissive
V – Really the Council should be mediating in this situation and should be trying to enable an agreement to take place but unfortunately, in this dispute the Labour Council has been backing the head teacher, unequivocally, and I think this has emboldened her. I don’t think she sees a reason to resolve the dispute and is just waiting for it to end. That means that the issues the teachers are striking about – bullying of union members, the abuse of school policies to victimise staff, the unfair sacking of the union rep – none of those things have been resolved. The head is utterly dismissive of the concerns that we have raised. Staff have been out on strike for five months. That means that we think there is something serious here that needs resolving but there is no willingness to try to come to an agreement.
R – So you have been on strike on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays of almost every week. How is it going? Are the staff remaining solid?
An attack on every union member
V – The staff on strike are very solid. They took action because they felt it was wrong to ignore bullying and the sacking of their union rep, because it is their voice that is being attacked. It is an attack on every single union member. They have not changed their mind about that because nothing has changed. There is no willingness on the part of the head to change the atmosphere of the school or to work with the members on strike to try to bring about improvements. Even three days ago, a letter was sent to parents by the chair of governors dismissing the allegations of a bullying culture.
But when we met with Jas Athwal [Labour leader of Redbridge Council – RG] back on 16th July, for a negotiation meeting (the only one!), he was aware of a dossier of statements from ex-staff members about how they were bullied and harassed out of their jobs. He read it and he said to us that he was committed to eradicating the culture of bullying in the school. Yet five months down the line, the chair of governors is sending out letters to parents saying that there is no bullying and the council and the chair of governors is confident and satisfied with that.
R – How many staff are out on strike?
Atmosphere of fear
V – Initially we had thirty-five members of staff out on strike out of 90. Although most union members voted for strike action and we passed the legal thresholds, which are quite high, because of the anti-union laws, many of them were too afraid actually to be out on strike because of the atmosphere of fear in the school. We have been told by staff members (who want to remain anonymous) that they were “encouraged” to think about not striking. Conversations were had about “career prospects” if they took strike action.
Then a number of staff, many of whom had been victims of bullying and victimisation, left at the end of last academic year, so because of that, our numbers have come down to twenty out of 70 union members. It’s a smaller number but the spirits are good. You can’t ignore the fact that there are still 20 staff members on strike after five months. Why are their concerns not being addressed seriously?
R – Have you had much support from the parents?
Phenomenal support from parents
V – There has been phenomenal support from parents. We felt it was incumbent on us to explain to parents why we are on strike. All of the parents we have spoken to who drop off their kids as we are on the picket line have been so supportive. In fact, they start telling us stories of how hostile and aggressive the management is, how they don’t listen and don’t care. We have had parents reach out to us and say “Can you help us?” because they have had to move their children from this school because it was such a horrendous experience. So, we are not isolated. It has been so good to see local people turn up to support our picket lines. It is good to see ordinary members from Leyton and Wanstead Labour Party stand with us so regularly. Such support is valuable to the strikers.
R – You have a petition, I understand?
V – Yes. We’ve got a physical petition and we have about 300 signatures on that. These are parents who are calling on the bullying to end. We have collected signatures mostly outside the school. We have also held online and physical meetings of parents. We’ve got an online petition with nearly 800 signatures on it from the local community. We have also been to ‘feeder’ primaries as well and there has been great concern expressed by parents in local primary schools because they don’t want to send their children to a school with bullying problems that haven’t been resolved. If staff are being treated like that, what’s the atmosphere like for children? Our support from parents has the school and the Council rattled, and that is why they are now sending out letters to parents criticising the strike and the union.
R – What does the future hold?
We want to create positive change
We are going to be striking until the end of November. Unfortunately, our ballot runs out then. We want to reach an agreement. We want to create a positive change. That’s what we are trying to do, but dismissal and denial is the response that we are getting. It is very concerning that a local authority, a chair of governors and a head don’t want to listen.
R – Have you had solid support from the NEU in the Borough, and Regional and National NEU?
V – 100% yes! We are actually taking our dispute to the Mayor of Greater London, Sadiq Khan. There is a demonstration outside the Greater London City Hall on 15th November and that is supported by the national NEU. This kind of bullying is not exclusive to this school. There is a problem with bullying throughout the education system but this is a very extreme example and we just can’t ignore it.
