opportunities (NAS/UWT,19771). It also had the effect of relieving
the secretary of some of the more routine, information processing and
planning work that he might previously have had to do himself. The
development of the sub-committees, therefore, did have some
effect on the influence of the secretary with the executive. He
used the sub-committees as an extension of his own activities and,
to a lesser extent, as an extension of the activities of other officers.
This tended to enable the secretary to be better informed on various
metters, for example on health and safety. His decisions and actions
were, therefore, less likely to be challenged on the executive, at
least until those involved in sub-committee work gained more experience
and independence.
Participation, the provision of experience, the processing of
information and the provision of support for officers were all significant
aspects of the work of the Coventry NAS/UWT sub-committee system.
The system, by providing this service, enabled officers to be better
prepared. This was especially true, as will be seen in the next chapter,
of the secretary and his casework. On the executive, however, the
assistance given to him by the sub-committee system had two important
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assocation more legitimacy within the executive and, secondly, It
enabled him to represent the association more effectively on
committees which were external to the local association and to deal
more readily with a wide range of external issues. In spite of this,
however, the secretary could be challenged by the rank-and-file because
of the structuring of participation within the local association
over such issues.
External Relationships
The business which was passed to the sub-committees indicates
the extent to which much of the work of the Coventry NAS/UWT had
its origins outside the local association. The functioning of these
sub-committees reveals how much importance was attached to creating
situations in which the officers of the local association could respond
on behalf of the Coventry NAS/UWT to such external initiatives.
The processing of information by these sub-committees, their part in the
representative structure of the local association and the extent to
which members of the executive werebetter able to participate in the
business of the association through the sub-committee system all
helped to establish the legitimacy of those actions carried out by the
officers of the Coventry NAS/UWT.
The reactions of these officers on behalf of the local association
as a response to initiatives taken elsewhere in the education service
or by the national association serve, as has already been shown, to
highlight the major concerns of the local association itself and to
illustrate how far the Coventry NAS/UWT has developed a locally based
are illustrated even more clearly when seen against the background
of the network of external relationships with which the Coventry
NAS/UWT is involved and from which many of the situations to which
it has to respond actually emerge.
These external relationships are presented to the executive
meetings in two ways. Those which are part of a sustained, formal contact
such as CJC membership, are the subject of reports in much the same
way as were the internal sub-committees. The trend in presenting
these reports of external committee business followed that of the
presentation of sub-committee reports in that the practice was developed
of encouraging a range of officers to become involved in presenting
the reports of external committees as opposed to them being delivered
almost exclusively by the secretary as was the case initially. This
move tended to be restricted to officers and did not normally include
ordinary executive members but opportunities were certainly created
to spread participation more widely withiji the officer group.
Some important issues resulted from events in some parts of the
external environment of the Coventry NAS/UWT which were not subject
to regular reports at executive meetings. These frequently appeared
as special items on the executive meeting's agenda and were, perhaps,
even less predictable and controllable by the local association than
those emanating from the external formal meetings. This is not to argue,
however, that the external relationships with which the local NAS/UWT
found itself dealing produced events which were entirely unpredictable.
These relationships involved a limited number of groups such as the
LEA, NUPE, the Trades Council and the NUT. The NAS/UWT already had
its own perceptions about the interests of its members and how best
they should be fostered, as the previous sections in this chapter
171
helped to shape the way In which officers of the Coventry NAS/UWT
approach the issues which arise from these external relationships.
The approaches adopted by the officers, in turn, tended to reflect
the special concerns of the local association.
This was certainly true of the way in which the local
association's affiliation to the Campaign for Educational Advance,
(CEA), was handled in 1976. This group, started in Coventry by the
combined action of the NAS/UWT, NUT and NATFHE to oppose cuts in
educational expenditure, had the NUT secretary as its chairman and
the NAS/UWT secretary as its vice chairman. The NAS/UWT affiliated to
it as a result of a proposal put to an executive meeting by the local
secretary (NAS/UWT,1976g). At this meeting the secretary gave details
of a CEA meeting which, it was proposed, would take place in the
following October and at which Terry Casey would be the principal
speaker. Eventually this public meeting took place in November 1976
to coincide with the National Education Week. The local association
used its resources to publicize the meeting and members were urged to
attend. When the final details of this meeting were reported to the
executive meeting it was also reported that the Director of
Education had agreed to meet Terry Casey (NAS/UWT,1976i).
Even before the CEA meeting friction was developing between the
NAS/UWT and people described by the local secretary as left wing
members of the NUT over the NAS/UWT's approach to education cuts.
This dispute had split the CEA organizing committee. The NUT group
on that comnittee wanted Casey publicly to oppose all proposed cuts
in educational spending. The national stance of the NAS/UWT was,
typically, concerned with its members interests at the expense of
other parts of the education service. The position was based on the
view that in the current climate cuts in educational expenditure were
minimize the effects of these cuts on the membership by trying to
direct them away from key areas of education. Hence the teacher-
pupil ratio should be protected at all costs while capitation at
existing levels should be defended. Cuts in areas such as school
meals and lunch time supervision ought to be viewed acceptable if
cuts were inevitable. This was, in fact, the view that Casey put
to the CEA public meeting, albeit in fairly general terms.
This caused considerable dissention on the CEA organizing
committee. The criticism to which Casey and the Coventry NAS/UWT were
subjected by some NUT members resulted in the question of the
association's affiliation to the CEA being placed on the agenda
of the next executive meeting (NAS/UWT, 1976 j) . This had been
discussed at an officer's meeting the previous week. The president
proposed a motion to the effect that the Coventry NAS/UWT should end
its affiliation to the CEA. This was seconded by the secretary.
The president argued that the local association should no longer be
affiliated to the CEA, not because of the criticisms levelled at Casey,
but because the CEA was dominated by members of left wing political
groups with no direct interest in education but who wanted to use the
CEA to oppose all public expenditure cuts for political reasons. These
groups, he claimed, were based on the NUT and on NUPE, and were
changing the CEA from an educational organization to a political
pressure group over which the NAS/UWT could not exert any significant
influence. The president argued that the NAS/UWT was a trade union
with the sole responsibility of representing its members and
protecting their interests, and not a politically orientated group.
This view was unanimously supported by the executive whose members
expressed concern that the NAS/UWT had ever been associated with an
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The spectre of being associated with an organization
dominated by the political left was raised again at the very meeting
at which the NAS/UWT executive voted to dis-affiliate itself from the
CEA. This came as a result of a report from the association's
representatives on the Coventry Trades Council on which both the
NAS/UWT had been represented for several years. The NUT left the
Trades Council in June 1976 but the NAS/UWT continued to be represented
by four long serving and experienced members including the secretary.
The local executive continued to the provided with reports on the
Trades Council until December when it was proposed by two of the
officers that the local association should leave the Trades Council
on the grounds that membership was of no real value to a serious
trade union. The secretary described the Trades Council as a vehicle
for trotskyites and communists to carry on interminable disputes.
Another of the NAS/UWT's representatives argued that the Trades Council
was a very left wing organization which did not support the TUC.
By remaining as members, it was argued, there was a danger that the
NAS/UWT might be thought to share the political views expressed on
the Trades Council by some people. Again the resolution to withdraw
was not opposed by any member of the executive.
These two events illustrate the extent to which the Coventry
NAS/UWT executive shares a set of common views about the appropriate
nature of trade union activity. Whether or not the claims made
about the Trades Council and the CEA being dominated by left wing groups
were actually true, clearly depends on the political standpoint of
the particular observer. What is important about the NAS/UWT's
responses to these two situations, however, was the extent to which
to be Involved with politically active left wing groups In Coventry.
'Ibis concern resulted from the wish to maintain the non-radical,
co-operative and accommodating stance which the NAS/UWT preferred to
adopt towards the LEA and to avoid this position being attacked as a
result of the local association becoming involved, even inadvertantly,
with groups which might be too far to the political left.
Such a stance was developed in order that the NAS/UWT might
be seen to be significantly different from the NUT in Coventry,
especially where relationships with the LEA were concerned. These
relationships between the NUT, LEA and the Coventry NAS/UWT were
usually reported to the executive committee meetings as part of the
CJC Reports which were a regular part of the proceedings of the
executive meetings. Again the reports of these meetings concentrated
on the particular concerns of the NAS/UWT. For example, the
secretary's reports on the discussions of the negotiations over the
proposed merger between the local college of education and polytechnic
focused on the deleterious effect that the negotiations were having
on relationships between the teachers' unions and the officers of the
LEA, (NAS/UWT,1976g), rather than on the specific content of the
merger negotiations.
The representatives of the Coventry NAS/UWT on the CJC saw the
role of that committee in a different light from the NUT and LEA
representatives on it, perhaps because the NAS/UWT was, because of its
size, in a minority on the CJC. The local secretary pointed out this
difference in two of his reports, (NAS/UWT,1977h> 1977i), arguing
that he regarded it as a consultative committee but not as a vehicle
for representing real teacher opinion throughout the city. This,
he suggested, could only be arrived at, as in the case of determining
the teacher membership of the committee which it was proposed would
oversee the college-polytechnic merger, by city wide elections. The
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from which such membership should be drawn. This particular issue
eventually became irrelevant because of a change in the proposed
merger but the NAS/UWT concern about the nature of the CJC remained.
The nature of the CJC and the issues of the NAS/UWT's
representation on it came to a head with the appointment of a new
chairman of the CJC. The incoming chairman was a member of the NUT
and all three NAS/UWT representatives felt that the election had been
arranged before the meeting. Since then it was believed by those
representatives that the NUT seemed to be manipulating dates and times
of meetings to suit themselves and to place the NAS/UWT at a disadvantage.
The executive member proposed that the local association's secretary
should look closely at the role of the CJC and press for a re-alignment
of its membership and increase in NAS/UWT membership on it (NAS/UWT,
1977h; 1977m). It was felt by some members that the whole question
of representation might be resolved to the satisfaction of the NAS/UWT
by the incoming conservative administration (NAS/UWT,1977k).
Representation and the nature of the consultation process on the
CJC were both important issues for the officers and members of the
Coventry NAS/UWT. This was partly because, as was widely recognized
within the association, it started from a position of relative weakness
in all such matters because it was about a third of the size of its
rival union, the NUT. It was also significant because of the emphasis
placed by both the national and local association on providing a
service to members. As the NAS found before it gained representation
on the Burnham Committee, without appropriate representation, it was
unable to provide a service. The Coventry NAS/UWT did not always find
itself at a disadvantage over matters of representation, however. In
in the time off allowed to union officers in order that they could
attend to union business. The NAS/UWT was given 6 sessions, 3 of which
went to the secretary while the other 3, were given to the president,
treasurer and vice president. The NUT was only allocated 8 sessions
to be divided in a similar way (NAS/UWT,1977i). This agreement, like
many others, was based on the membership of the two unions and, since
the NUT was significantly larger than the NAS/UWT, the NUT was unhappy
with the terms of this particular agreement.
The CJC was part of the consultative procedure in the Coventry
education service through which teachers' representatives were involved,
however indirectly, in the processes of decision-making. If sometimes
the teachers' unions disagreed about the nature of their involvement,
there were times when they agreed that the appropriate consultative
machinery was not being used by the LEA. In June 1977 the local
executive was informed of just such a situation (NAS/UWT,19771).
The LEA, at the insistence of the DES, had incorporated the new May Day
holiday into the existing holiday pattern in Coventry. This pattern
is an unusual one in any case, because of the holiday demands of the
car industry which means that term finishes unusually early in July,
among other things. There was no official consultation over this on the
CJC. Most teachers' representatives were opposed to this new holiday,
coming as it did so soon after the Easter Holiday and so soon before
the important public examinations. The Coventry NAS/UWT were especially
opposed to it representing, as it claimed, the majority of secondary
school teachers in the city. The executive committee also reacted
strongly to what they saw as a failure to consult the teachers on
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of the members of the executive reported that their members were
concerned about the effect that this holiday might have on examination
preparation. The NAS/UWT representatives were instructed to press
for consultations on the matter, although the local secretary had already
contacted NAS/UWT headquarters and had been informed that nothing could
be done about the imposition of the May Day holiday because teachers
did not have a contract which specified when they should and should
not work. Even so, headquarters advised that attempts to use this
day to save heating fuel should be resisted and that one day should
be taken off at Easter rather than, say, Christmas. After the LEA
had consulted the teachers' representatives on the CJC, the point
was eventually conceded to the LEA and the teachers accepted the
May Day holiday.
The CJC was one of the main avenues of contact between the
NAS/UWT and the LEA. The formal contacts which the secretary had as
part of his membership of other committees as well as the formal
contacts which he developed and used in his casework activities will be
examined in the next chapter. There was one other point of contact
with the LEA which the officers of the NAS/UWT were attempting to
develop as part of the external relationships of the local association
at this time. Political control of the education authority was due to
change hands and, as a result, a new Conservative administration was to
take office in May 1977. The officers of the NAS/UWT planned to take
the initiative and arrange a meeting with the new elected members of the
Conservative administration. A sum of £100 was to be spent to entertain
the Tory group on the city council (NAS/UWT,1977k). At the