THE alarm rings at 6am and I’m up and out to another early morning picket at the school gates. Day 6 of the National Education Union strikes and no end in sight so far.

The good news is the rain has held off for the last two pickets and it is starting to warm up — a little at least. Towards the last round of strikes, the pickets started to dwindle as fatigue set in so it was good to see colleagues coming to the picket line as the morning went on — some for the first time.

The proximity to Year 11 exams has had an impact on striking as staff are torn between what they see as doing the best for their exam classes and supporting the strike.

The decision by the NEU to give dispensation to members to cross the picket line to teach exam classes has been a divisive one; in some cases members believe this is the right thing to do, for example, to win the battle of public relations.

This at least has been partly successful, though whether or not the message has reached the public is unclear. The other thing to consider is if the membership would have been willing to follow an instruction by the union to disrupt exams. Although the NEU membership is leaps and bounds, politically, beyond some other education unions, are they there yet?

The counterargument to this is that dispensations weaken the resolve of members and make it easier for them to strike next time. It also plays into the government’s narrative that it is educators who are causing disruption when we know that the real disruption is caused by the chronic underfunding and privatisation of the education system.

We won’t, of course, see any talk of disruption to exam classes next Monday when pupils are given a bank holiday to swear oaths to their new feudal overlord.

Some positive news this weekend was the agreement of four education unions to co-ordinate strikes should they all be successful in their strike ballots. The four unions set to take joint action are the NEU, the NASUWT, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

This is positive for several reasons. First, it will have the maximum impact on schools – ensuring that the highest number of staff are on strike at once. The bigger impact will hopefully bring the government to the negotiating table and, in the long run, shorten the dispute.

Second, it shows a united front to the government. We are strongest when we stand together. Divided we beg, united we bargain as the saying goes. Perhaps now is the time for us to once again start the debate over the merger of unions.

Some have been doing this for a long time and are still going strong. The cross-union body now called UNIFY has been campaigning for this for 20 years.

The amalgamation of the NUT and ATL was a positive first step in creating a union of half a million education workers but why stop there? The government keeps coming up with new ways to attack us from anti-trade union laws to anti-protest legislation so we need to be proactive in building our own strength and taking the fight to them.

If these four unions did merge it would create a union of nearly 900,000 members, from support staff to head teachers; everyone in the building could potentially be in one union. This would save time and resources on recruitment and allow us to provide a united front on matters such as Ofsted, pay and workload.

Today we held our first rally of the strike in my hometown. We called this rally “May Day, May Day this is the fight of our lives.” If I am honest I was nervous about the turnout, but in the end I was pleasantly surprised. The public was generally positive and the energy in the crowd was high.

The speeches were brilliant and it was fantastic to see a wide range of speakers. We had teachers from the NEU, lecturers from the UCU, an RMT train guard, an organiser from NAHT and an outsourced hospital worker who had won an amazing victory in her workplace.

As one union alone, the rally would have been a failure — but all of these workers coming together made it a success. We also went away with a sense that we have a shared understanding that what we want is a better world and we have the power to make this happen.

We have the power to demand change. We have the power to create a better future for ourselves and for generations to come. But we must be united. We must stand together in solidarity. We must not let the government divide us. We must not let them weaken our resolve or our determination.