A moderate who opposes regular school strikes is to challenge the left-wing leadership of the biggest teachers’ union.
Ian Grayson, a PE teacher from Newcastle upon Tyne, is to stand as a candidate to be deputy general secretary of the National Union of Teachers.
It is the first time in recent years that the NUT leadership has faced a challenge from the union’s moderate wing rather than the ultra-left.
Mr Grayson, 50, says teachers must be prepared to engage in debate and compromise, rather than fall back on regular industrial action. In an interview with The Times, he said: “I actually feel that we need to find an alternative to strike action.
“People say that strike action is a last resort. However, it is becoming pretty much a regular thing and is something that teachers do reluctantly. I think it is an indication that we are losing the argument and is a knee-jerk reaction when we have run out of ideas.”
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Support for the strikes among teachers was waning and had been “patchy” on the last one-day stoppage on July 10, and many teachers took part only out of loyalty to the union, he said.
“I do think we are becoming concerned that they are losing a day’s pay and they don’t see the gains and they want to know what the benefits are.”
He called on the NUT to survey its members to see if they still backed strikes. The two ballots authorising industrial action were held in 2011 and 2012. He also accused NUT activists of losing touch with teachers.
“The executive and the conference are, I believe, more left-wing than the large majority of the membership and not necessarily representative of the membership,” Mr Grayson said.
The NUT’s current deputy, Kevin Courtney, is seeking re-election and is backed by the Socialist Teachers’ Alliance, whose supporters include the far-left Socialist Workers party.
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He is supported by the NUT’s general secretary, Christine Blower, who was re-elected in June with one ultra-left challenger and just 13 per cent of members voting. Until now Mr Courtney’s sole challenger has been Patrick Murphy, from the Trotskyite group Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.
Mr Grayson, a Labour party activist who is considered a Blairite, said he fully supported the NUT’s campaign to cut teachers’ workloads but wanted a new approach to achieving this.
He criticised Ms Blower for telling its annual conference in April that she and Mr Courtney had led the union through the most strikes for 30 years.
“They are actually bragging and using that as a reason for people to re-elect them,” Mr Grayson said. “I actually think that is not what teachers want to hear. They want rational debate, compromise being reached and some benefits and gains to make their lives and jobs easier.”
Nominations close on December 1 and the ballot to elect the deputy general secretary starts on January 5.
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One rival attacked his candidacy. Patrick Murphy said his call to step back from striking was “a call for a retreat and a counsel of despair”.