The
National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (
NASUWT) is a
trade unionA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
representing
teacherIn education, a teacher is a person who educates others. A teacher who educates an individual student may also be described as a personal tutor....
s including headteachers throughout the UK. It is the country's second-largest teaching union.
History 1919 to 1976
The origins of the NASUWT can be traced back to the formation of the National Association of Men Teachers (NAMT) in 1919. The Association was formed as group within the
National Union of TeachersThe National Union of Teachers is a trade union for school teachers in England and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is a member of the Trades Union Congress...
(NUT) to promote the interests of male teachers. The group existed alongside others within the NUT such as, the National Federation of Class Teachers, the National Association of Head Teachers and the National Federation of Women Teachers (later to become the
National Union of Women TeachersFounded in 1904 as the Equal Pay League, part of the National Union of Teachers, in 1906 this United Kingdom organisation was re-named the National Federation of Women Teachers. In 1920 it broke away to form an independent union, the National Union of Women Teachers...
).
The formation of the NAMT was in response to an NUT referendum the same year, approving the principle of equal pay. A major change in salary policy which had been achieved whilst many male teachers were still away serving in the army.
A subsequent three year campaign by the NAMT to further the interests of male teachers in the NUT, saw its name changed in 1920 to the National Association of Schoolmasters (NAS) and finally resulted in secession of the NAS from the NUT in 1922. The secession came about indirectly following a decision at the NAS Conference that year to prohibit NAS members from continuing to also be members of the NUT after the 31 December 1922.
The NAS aimed to recruit every schoolmaster into the NAS, to safeguard and promote the interests of male teachers, to ensure recognition of the social and economic responsibilities of male teachers, and to ensure the representation of schoolmasters on matters concerned with education, with both the Local Education Authorities (LEA’s) and Government. The NAS also maintained that all boys over the age of seven should be taught mainly by men and that schoolmasters should not serve under women heads.
As the secondary education sector expanded, the NAS built its organisation among male secondary teachers, it adopted the methods of
collective bargainingIn organized labor, collective bargaining is the method whereby workers organize together to meet, converse, and negotiate upon the work conditions with their employers normally resulting in a written contract setting forth the wages, hours, and other conditions to be observed for a stipulated...
and militant industrial action in pursuing a narrow range of pay and conditions issues related to the interests of full time male ‘career teachers’. In 1976 the NAS merged with the
Union of Women TeachersThe Union of Women Teachers was a trade union for female teachers in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1909 by the merger of the Women Teachers' Franchise Union with the London Mistresses Association...
(UWT) largely as a consequence of the
Sex Discrimination Act 1975The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to protect men and women from discrimination on the grounds of sex. The Act is mainly in relation to employment, training, education, harassment, the provision of goods and services, and the disposal of premises...
, under which it became unlawful to exclude from membership on grounds of gender, and became the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NAS/UWT). In recent years, the slash has been dropped from the name.
General Secretaries
- 1923: A. E. Warren
- 1941: R. Anderson
- 1956: E. Rushworth
- 1963: T. A. Casey
- 1983: Fred Smithies
- 1990: Nigel de Gruchy
Nigel de Gruchy is a former trade union official.Born in Jersey, de Gruchy studied at De La Salle College followed by the University of Reading and then the University of Paris, which he attended during May 1968...
- 2002: Chris Keates
Source:
http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/consum/groups/public/%40recruitmentandevents/documents/nas_download/nasuwt_004110.pdf
See also
- National Union of Teachers
The National Union of Teachers is a trade union for school teachers in England and Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is a member of the Trades Union Congress...
- Educational Institute of Scotland
The Educational Institute of Scotland is the oldest teachers' trade union in the world, having been founded in 1847 when dominies became concerned about the effect of changes to the system of education in Scotland on their professional status....
- Education in the United Kingdom
Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments: the UK Government is responsible for education in England, the Scottish Government is responsible for education in Scotland, the Welsh Assembly...
External links