Author Archives: Stefan Simms

News 21 May 2025 Leave a comment

Ealing NEU members – make your voices heard!

On Tuesday 10th June, Ealing Council are meeting and we will lobby them outside Ealing Town Hall from 6pm.

See you there!

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A Fair Deal for Ealing Educators

Ealing NEU members believe that every teacher receives automatic pay progression annually, every member of support staff receives paid leave for religious observance and that NEU officers get adequate union time to support their members.

Why are we lobbying?

Schools are suffering a recruitment and retention crisis for teachers.
Support staff are being discriminated against due to being forced to take unpaid leave to observe religious holidays such as Eid, Vaisakhi and Diwali.
Ealing NEU officers are stretched for time when supporting their members, this could be the difference between an educator staying at your local school or being forced out.
If teachers can move up the pay scale without worrying about their appraisal, if support staff can observe their religion without fear of losing pay, if NEU members get the support they need from their officers – then Ealing schools will see a drastic improvement in working conditions and, therefore, a vastly better learning environment for our children!

What have we done so far?

Over 1300 school staff in Ealing have signed a petition demanding these changes. If you work in an Ealing school, then add your signature to this link: SIGN THE PETITION
45 Ealing schools have passed a motion calling for these changes in school union meetings.

Please get in touch with Ealing NEU if you have any questions:

aisha.abbasi@neu.org.uk

mat.milovanovic@neu.org.uk

stefan.simms@neu.org.uk

NEU Elections Vote Mat Milovanovic 1

Mat will:

* Defend our schools, pupils & ALL our members
* Fight against the scourge of sexism and toxic masculinity in our schools
* Campaign for a free Palestine
* Fight the threat of the far right

Your Ballot Paper Arrived By Post ↓ ⇓ ↓ ⇓ ↓

How To Vote

Post Your Ballot Paper Now

Please Share Widely

Zoom Briefing Tues 4th March 6:30 – 7:00 pm

1. National Electronic Indicative ballot Funding & Pay Ballot Briefing

2. Borough Campaign Pass The School Strike Mortion

The national electronic ballot arrives this Saturday. Please download resources below. There are three things statistically proven that makes the biggest impact in persauding your members to vote YES.

Does the school rep (and co-reps/helpers) attend the District’s NEU Reps Briefing? Hence the repeat on Tues 4th.
Is there a school union meeting where members attend with their phones – We will provide the lunch or after school treats.
Does the rep and their helpers ‘walk the school’ getting members to vote then and there.

Remember we had an Ealing reps training day last term, we launched our borough campaign there and officially at the Ealing NEU General Meeting. Since then nearly 1,300 have signed the petition – thats brilliant well done! There is still more that could sign! See link below.

We will present this petition and all the schools that pass the school motion at a full Ealing Council meeting. We hope this will suffice in persauding Ealing to engage with us in meaningful discussions.

The school strike motion calls on the NEU to ballot all schools in Ealing for paid strike action.

Register HERE for the Zoom meeting

Tell us when your school meeting will be stefan.simms@neu.org.uk

Here is the Ealing NEU School Motion

Over 1,200 Ealing school have already signed this petition. Have all your members?

Fund Fair Pay ppt for school union meeting ffp_model_slides_workplace_member_briefings_6feb2025.369f2694f256

Fund Fair Pay FAQs for your school union meeting

A3 Poster Fund Fair Pay neu3764_ffp_workplace_poster_a3_hqp.c238549b74fc

A4 Poster Fund Fair Pay neu3764_ffp_workplace_poster_a4_hqp.ab97e462ad2c

Thanks & Solidarity

Stefan Ealing NEU

Unite To Stop The Far Right Sat 1st

The NEU calls on all its members to be on National Demonstration.

Ealing NEU will meet at 10:30 am Ealing Broadway Tube Station. We will travel as a group to the trade union bloc meeting point.

Fascist Tommy Robinson has announced a demonstration on Sat 1 Feb calling on his racist supporters to take to the streets of London. Stand Up To Racism are calling a national demo to stop the far right in response and we need a huge turnout to show the fascists they are not welcome on our streets.

Elon Musk is fast becoming the most influential far right figure globally and is leading the defence of Tommy Robinson. They both are pushing Islamophobic lies and panic about so-called “Asian grooming gangs”.

Farage boasts that Reform UK now has over 170,000 members and has overtaken the Tories. Reform UK is setting the agenda in British politics on immigration and is pushing hard racism that is giving confidence to fascists. Trumps’ Presidential Inauguration is boosting the far right everywhere, EG look at the fascist scum he has released/pardon!

The danger of the far right is only growing. But they can be stopped. In August, mass anti-racist resistance halted the far right riots. In October, 20,000 of us came out to march against Robinson’s fascist friends. But on Sat 1 Feb we must do it again. Join us. The Ealing NEU Banner will be there.

This is what antisemitism actually looks like and its dangerous. Israel being condemned for its barbaric genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank is not antisemitic. Worse these slurs only embolden the real racists and fascists.

Ealing NEU Petition + Next Steps In campaign

Next Steps In Our Borough Wide Campaign

Towards the end of this term we will present this petition to Ealing Council. There will also be a MASS Rally where at least one member from every school must attend. Finally, all schools must hold a school NEU meeting and vote to support a motion backing this campaign.

By the start of the Summer Term if all this does not move Ealing Council & Ealing schools, then we will vote to escalate to the highest stage.

Sign The Petition –> Here

Petition Wording

Move up the main and upper pay scales every year automatically

The Government has said Performance Related Pay (PRP) is no longer a legal requirement. The headteacher unions and the NEU have written to all schools urging for the “immediate dropping of PRP” as it is “fundamentally unfair, contributes to the existing recruitment and retention problems and damages morale.” There is clear statistical evidence that shows PRP discriminates on gender and race. Too many teachers stay ‘stuck’ on M6

Support Staff Should Get Inner London Pay Like Teachers.

Support staff only get Outer London Weighting whilst Teachers get Inner London Weighting. It is clearly wrong that those who are usually paid the least compared to teachers are financially penalised and discriminated against.

Support Staff Should Get Paid Religious Leave Like Teachers.

Support staff have significantly lower wages than teachers, yet they are usually only allowed unpaid leave for religious observance. (A big thank you to the schools that do allow support staff to have paid leave). Support staff in Ealing are more likely to have a minority faith. The NEU believes this to be both unfair and discriminatory.

Your Elected Rep & Local Officers Must Have Trade Union Time In Order To Support You When You Need It.

Your rep and local officers work long and hard for you. They need, as they are entitled to by law, trade union release time in their working week. Education remains in a poly-interlinked-crisis; funding, SEND, workload, low pay, recruitment and retention. We need our reps and officers even more now.

Little or zero engagement between Ealing and the NEU.

Recently, emails and requests for meetings are ignored, official meetings severely restricted as to what can be raised on your behalf.