THIS year’s NASUWT conference is coming at an important time — where the possibility of a ballot is looming, where our right to strike is under attack from the draconian laws of the Conservative government and in a year where an election with a change in government is possible.

During our conference this weekend, there will most likely be a mention of a change in government, and enthusiasm for it met with claps and cheers. I don’t blame my colleagues for rejoicing because the 14 years of austerity have done unspeakable damage to the families of the children that we teach and to the profession itself, among other things.

However, I urge my fellow young teachers to not rejoice if Keir Starmer does become Prime Minister because has shown his fallibility through his lies, U-turns and blatant contempt for British working people.

But what is the point of making this statement? As a young schoolteacher in Wales, I’ve seen the potential of a Labour government’s mismanagement of an education system before my eyes (this is not to dismiss the Conservative government’s disastrous management either).

Firstly, through the Welsh Labour government’s lack of respect for their teacher workload agreement, and secondly through the damning Institute for Fiscal Studies report titled Major Challenges for Education in Wales. A few major takeaways from the report are that the PISA scores in Wales have significantly worsened, to be among the lowest in Britain.

Even worse, these scores cannot be blamed on poverty and lack of funding alone, as the report states that regions with similar levels of deprivation and funding in England have performed significantly better.

This is a policy failure of the Welsh Labour government, whose Curriculum for Wales enables increasing workload and a convoluted structure for teachers to follow under the guise of a socially “progressive” curriculum. What would be progressive is for the Welsh government to actually understand what workers in Wales need.

The Labour government in the Senedd seem to only be effective in enraging the average man and woman in Wales, with punitive measures such as removing toys from the supermarkets in Covid, the 20mph road limitations, debating on whether to ban the sale of coffee to under-16s and most recently their proposal to shorten the summer holidays.

The lesson to be learnt here is that no politician is coming to save us any time soon. We, as young members of the second-largest teaching trade union in the United Kingdom and as members of the trade union movement, must keep up the pressure and galvanise our union by becoming more active.

What does that look like? It means that we young members must become involved in our local branches, not be afraid to run for positions in them and regularly attend meetings, where we can raise our concerns and know what the material conditions of the schools in our areas are.

We also need to be the spark that ignites activity in our workplace. Simple actions such as setting up a union noticeboard with the most up-to-date flyers, petitions, information on ballots, union branch meeting dates and contact information for your branch and reps.

A simple organisational action like this will pay off dividends. Talk to other colleagues, be they NASUWT or NEU, about our union and their actions, and encourage them to come to the courses that our union offers members. Be proud to be a young, active member of our trade union, as our general secretary told us in November’s young teachers’ consultation conference.

A Labour or Conservative government need to have their feet held close to the fire, relentlessly, on every action that they take.

Furthermore, we must do what our NEU brothers and sisters do so well, which is co-ordinate with other trade unions and show our solidarity with them. The struggle against austerity, job cuts and deindustrialisation permeates our lives in the form of the children we teach, their parents and the communities that we teach in, which bear the brunt of the over a decade of Tory rule every day.

Lastly, any pretence of a “rivalry” or lack of co-operation and professional unity with our sister unions must be dropped. We face a difficult, unnecessary situation in that there are two large teaching unions instead of one. We need to co-operate with each other in any way possible.

This can manifest itself in joint union workplace meetings, co-ordination on strike actions locally and attending each other’s events. We should learn from each other by attending each other’s young members’ conferences as guests and staying in contact with local branches of our sister unions.

In the coming fight against a government that is hostile to trade unions and a potential incoming one that merely wishes to act as stewards of a failing state for entrepreneurs and businessmen along with the alarming drop in trade union membership among young people, it is up to us to use our will and enthusiasm to invigorate our colleagues of all ages.

Matt Flamenco is a member of NASUWT’s young members’ advisory committee.