With social inequality so blatant, they fear that the teachers' action may also encourage opposition amongst other workers. The Office for National Statistics recently recorded that inequality in income distribution under Labour's administration has risen to its highest level since 1990, when Thatcher resigned her leadership of the Conservative government. Far from being rewarded for their efforts, workers are told that they must accept falling wages rates, longer hours and the eradication of virtually all allowances to maintain their jobs. The share of the national income held by the poorest 20 percent has continued to fall, while at the other end of the scale the salaries of corporate executives have risen dramatically. The performance-related aspect of executive pay is based on how successful they are in lowering the wages and increasing the exploitation of the workforce.
None are more hostile to the fight for equality than the trade union bureaucracy.
The NUT bureaucracy has not lifted a finger against the measures implemented by both Conservative and Labour governments over the past years, which have produced crowded classrooms, under-funded schools and exhausted teachers now leaving the profession at the rate of one in every three. Despite repeated votes and calls for industrial action, the union has stifled opposition, leaving individual teachers, schools and parents to fight alone. The NUT is nominally committed to opposing the new pay award, whilst sabotaging any real struggle against it by advising members individually to enter for appraisal. When the mood in the conference hall became clear, the union leadership attempted to prevent a vote on industrial action, postponing it until the end of the conference. They hoped it would fall off the agenda through lack of time, but they failed.