Unions Sell-out Classroom Assistants, here is the real cost

antrim | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Thursday January 31, 2008 12:22 by NIPSA 517 - NIPSA (personal capacity)

The effect/outcome of the FORCED THROUGH Job Evaluation for Classroom Assistants

3% of evaluated staff across the Boards are on pay protection.
70% will be the number of Classroom Assistants who will be on pay protection as stated by Management Representatives for the 5 Boards in the Labour Relations Agency discussions during the period of NIPSA's strike suspension.

The Boards have stated that no-one will lose any money-Fact or Fiction?

Classroom Assistant
(General/mainstream)
Previous rate per hour = £6.86 - £8.90
New rate per hour =£6.18 – £7.73
Reduction per hour = 68p - £1.17

Classroom Assistant
(Special Needs)
Previous rate per hour =£9.56 (max)
New rate per hour = £8.43 (max)
Reduction per hour = £1.13

It is already apparent since the beginning of January 2008 that 30+ Classroom Assistant posts have been advertised across the 5 Boards on the new rates of pay which for the majority of Classroom Assistants is a cut in the rate of pay for this job and a downgrading of the valuable work carried out by Classroom Assistants every day in supporting the education of children alongside the Teacher.

Check SEELB website under recruitment, and for example:
Londonderry PS P1 Classroom Assistant starting at £6.18 per hour and must have an approved childcare qualification.
That is a cut of at least 68 pence per hour, or 12%. Who is kidding who here?

Well done Unison and GMB.
Unison can continue to call itself the union for low paid women workers, a title it has championed since its inception, because continuing to negotiate such outcomes will ensure that being a union for low paid workers remains the case in fact.
Not something to be proud of!

Management/Unison/GMB ="not one classroom Assistant will loose one penny."
It should be noted that Unison were going to sell for much less than was acheived. They had agreed to the outcome pre-summer 2007 without the additional £15million (as per L Kerr's letter to Unison members, but they do not publish that fact, but I WILL NOT HIDE IT EITHER).

In addition the Chief Executive of the Southern Education and Library Board in addressing the Northern Ireland Assembly Public Accounts Committee on 29 November 2007 in response to the following question from John Dallat, MLA:
“…….Let us say that NIPSA agreed today to ballot their classroom assistants. Would you welcome that? Would you ensure that the boards took no action that would cut across the ballot?"

Mrs McClenaghan stated:

“I am happy to respond. I would greatly welcome a ballot. That is the objective that the Boards seek from NIPSA, and we would do nothing to hinder it; rather we would wait for the outcome of the ballot.”

The very next day the Boards did a u-turn and forced through the Collective Agreement at the JNC.
In summarising:
This sell-out was orchestrated all for the measly one off payment of either £1,614 or £2,479 which will be split between 6824 Classroom Assistants. These people have the audacity to sit with a straight face and try to sell this and the truth of the matter is that the Boards will recoup this within a couple of years simply based on the new rates of pay, let alone removal of the special needs allowance also.
As for the spin/lies/hard sell tactics of the Boards, who seem more intent on trying to pay out sell out monies rather than paying all staff on NJC terms their contractual entitlements to the pay rise that applied since 1 April 07; this will all catch up with them, as did the £millions of debt of previous years, that Senior Managers tried to hide, then argued that NIPSA was lying during the Board Financial crisis!

You decide, who lied.

NIPSA Classroom Assistant members are fully aware of what the future holds for them.
Great deal, eh?
Never in my lifetime would I have thought that another union would stab members in the face let alone the back.
Unison and GMB did, and they were cheered on by a very weak Management, who so pathetically had to rely on their treachery. Traitorous/treacherous, are but just a few words I can print about them, other choice words I dare not print, due to the venom they exude! Management/traitorous union leaders, they both come from the same school of spin, spin, and more spin.
Unlike ourselves, they are elected by no one, and seem to answer to no one.
Show critique, and you run the risk of being victimised by either. But, that risk is a must!

We all owe it, particularly those of us who are union reps, to ensure that we never witness the likes of this again.
If Classroom Assistants lose the battle, we must win the war against Capitalist bosses and lick-spittle trade union leaders.