AUT 'must form alliance'

The Association of University Teachers must form a federation with other education trade unions to survive an uncertain future of diversification, mergers and local pay bargaining, a discussion paper has warned, writes Phil Baty.

But delegates at the AUT's annual council put the brakes on plans to form a federation with the 150,000-member Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

In a discussion paper on the union's strategic direction, the executive warns that it is "concerned" about "urgent" threats to the AUT's influence and power.

"A change has taken place in the political and economic understanding of education," it says.

Regional groupings of schools, colleges and universities are emerging, mergers are on the cards, and "the long-standing pressure of research selectivity... together with possible further changes in the funding mechanism for teaching, can be expected to create even sharper distinctions in the teaching-research mix among institutions". Some institutions may "pursue the private funding option", it adds.

Changes are taking place against "the likely background of reducing membership numbers", the paper says, as members retire and young academics fail to join in sufficient numbers.

"The problems of organisational size and possible future decline point to the need to consider our relations with other unions," the document says.

The executive says it would prefer to enter into a "federation" with the ATL, which represents schoolteachers, college lecturers and support staff, and already has a formal alliance with the AUT.

The paper says that "discussions could lead relatively easily... to a new federal arrangement, to which it is very likely other education unions, including (lecturers' union) Natfhe, would be attracted."

But delegates at Eastbourne carried a motion from the Cardiff association instructing the executive not to extend the relationship without the consent of council, and to discuss options before a preferred partner is recommended.