WITH regard to Kevan Nelson’s attack on the National Education Union for organising support staff, the sad reality is most school support staff are not in a trade union at all.

The National Education Union would like to see all support staff join a trade union to protect their interests at work.

The NEU does not have bargaining rights at a national level, but because we have an organised presence — standing up for education and education workers in the majority of schools — a number of support staff have opted to join the NEU. So much so that we have tripled our support staff membership since the formation of the NEU, with the majority of these new members not having been previously members of any trade union.

We extend the hand of solidarity to Unison and all other unions in organising a low-paid, badly treated and predominately female section of the education workforce.

DANIEL KEBEDE
General secretary, National Education Union