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Remembering Doug McAvoy, former leader of the NUT

ARTHUR JARMAN pays tribute to a formidable and highly respected negotiator

DOUG McAVOY was born in 1939, the son of Wilson and Jenny. His father was a printer at CWS Printworks in Pelaw, Gateshead, and father of the chapel.

Doug went to Jarrow Grammar School along with Jack Cunningham, later a Labour minister. A successful athlete in school sport, he was offered a trial at Burnley. His father said there was more money in teaching. 

Doug was secretary of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Teachers’ Association and was elected to the national executive in 1970. He soon became chairman of the pivotal finance and general purposes committee. 

Doug was appointed deputy general secretary in 1974/5 and in 1989 he was the first elected general secretary. 

Re-elected in 1994 and in 1999, by 2004 he had been DGS for 14 years and general secretary for 15. 

Through periods of Conservative and Labour governments, he built strong relationships with ministers and secretaries of state, sometimes securing early warning of government plans.

In 1991, for example, the Conservative government’s national curriculum tests were opposed by parents and teachers. 

In 1993 Doug’s leadership led to unprecedented support for a boycott. Education secretary Gillian Shephard called Doug in a private line, saying that the government would undertake a review. 

Doug indicated how the union would respond. League tables for seven and 14-year-olds were subsequently abolished.

As DGS and GS, Doug led major campaigns on pay, pensions, conditions of service, national curriculum testing and education funding. 

He was particularly concerned about performance-related pay, teacher support time, class sizes, privatisation, the professional learning of teachers and the entitlement of every class to be taught by a properly qualified teacher.

Doug was motivated not by political considerations but by commitment to the promotion of the best interests of education and teachers. 

His policies were based not on dogma but on evidence-based research, much of which was from independent researchers. He was diligent in seeking the views of members.

Doug understood that the NUT’s campaigns needed public sympathy. Campaigns on class size, qualification, education funding and issues like the provision of school toilets spoke directly to parents, education journalists were a means of disseminating the union’s message; he respected their professionalism and was always open to their enquiries. 

Forthright and unpredictable he gave them good copy; they enjoyed his company.

Recognising the legal and professional challenges facing teachers, Doug oversaw the restructuring of the union’s regional and Welsh office structure. 

Ever alert to an opportunity arising from a challenge, Doug used the Conservative anti-union legislation to advantage. 

The requirement to hold members’ home addresses enabled the union to directly communicate to members; direct debit could replace cumbersome local collection of subscriptions and ballots for industrial action could be held directly with members. 

The NUT’s general secretary would have both an elected mandate and the power to speak directly to members.

Doug recognised the NUT’s roles as a trade union and a professional organisation. In 1992 the executive agreed plans for a major programme of high-quality professional development for members, to be recognised as “union work” and parallel to but the union’s union training. 

The government even commissioned training from the union on the use of computers in schools.

Doug was a formidable and highly respected negotiator; he had an enviable command of the issues and the skill and experience necessary to decide where and when to press and when the best deal possible deal had been achieved.

Following a long struggle to restore teachers’ pay gains stemming from the 1974 Houghton inquiry and the 1990 Clegg review, the government rejected an Acas agreement on pay and conditions abolished the Burnham committee. 

Kenneth Baker withheld teachers’ pay negotiating rights. In separate eras, Doug demonstrated  the NUT’s independence and principled stance by refusing to join the school appraisal working party or in more recent years, to sign to the school workforce agreement. 

The NUT’s decisions to stand apart, fully supported by the executive, was predicated on belief in the professionalism of teachers, properly trained and qualified and able to exercise professional autonomy.

Consistent with his desire to consult members was his insistence on communication to members. Few teachers’ organisations nor trade unions generally could match the extent to which teachers in staffrooms throughout Wales and England were kept informed. 

NUT News was published almost weekly, with concise, up-to-date news, information and advice while constantly promoting NUT membership on the staffroom notice board.

Doug was responsible for a new and improved national collective agreement between the teachers’ organisations and the local authority employers. 

This was the Burgundy Book, and as was incorporated into local authority teachers’ contracts with the local authorities and most of the independent sector.

Doug worked tirelessly for professional pay and conditions of service for teachers. He exposed the failure of successive governments to invest properly in public education. 

The outcome of these activities was the growth in the union’s membership from 183,000 to 267,000 and the restoration and strengthening of its finances.

Doug demanded hard work and commitment from the union’s staff. In turn he was supportive, generous and caring. 

Loyalty worked in both directions. Just as he was respected at local and national levels, so was he recognised on the world stage. He was instrumental in the founding of Education International.   

Doug was a great orator and fine debater. Hecklers got more than they bargained for. Typically he would cast aside preprepared text and, impromptu, address issues others had raised. 

Speeches were punctuated by applause and always concluded by standing ovations. Delegates with widely differing views on many issues recognised the passion and compelling logic of his argument.

Doug had total memory, an incisive brain and a passionate commitment to education, teachers and education. He engaged in high strategy while attending to significant detail. Doug was indeed a great man. 

He leaves behind his second wife, Elaine and Neil and Jennifer; and from his first marriage, Margaret and their son Robert.

Arthur Jarman, head of membership, National Union of Teachers, 1981-2018.

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