TEACHERS are likely to be represented by a new union of half a million members after two of the three main unions voted to ballot their members on a merger plan.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) held special conferences in London on Saturday to debate the proposals, which were overwhelmingly carried.

The proposed new organisation will be called the National Education Union and will likely be the TUC’s fourth-largest affiliate.

NUT general secretary Kevin Courtney said the decision marked “a historic day for teacher trade unionism,” saying teachers must unite in order to fight off government attacks on education.

“The NUT has long been an advocate of professional unity and today’s decision by both NUT and ATL delegates takes it another step forward,” he said.

“Over the past decade the education landscape has seen unprecedented change, most of which has had a detrimental effect on both school staff and pupils. If we are to protect our education system effectively, the profession needs to be speaking with one voice.”

ATL leader Mary Bousted said: “A new union will bring together the best elements of ATL and NUT to give a louder voice to education professionals when speaking out against poor government policy and bad employment practices.

“The new union will support every member in maintained or independent schools and colleges — teachers, lecturers, support staff, leaders — to come together to make their working lives better, letting them concentrate on their main purpose: to educate children and young people.”

If the members’ ballots favour the plan, the new union will be formed in September in a transitional phase with separate ATL and NUT sections and a joint executive committee and joint general secretaries.

The sections would be integrated in 2019 and a single general secretary would be elected from 2023.

The third main teaching union in England and Wales, Nasuwt, is not involved in the merger plans.

But the new union is likely to recruit teaching assistants and heads, who are both already represented within ATL’s structures.

The NUT special conference carried the motion by 96.6 per cent, and it is thought the margin of victory at the ATL event was even higher.

Former ATL president Hank Roberts, the organising secretary of the Unify campaign, told the Star: “This was stunning proof, if any was needed, that the education workers’ unions need and want unity.

“Our belief is that workers are best served when there is not competition from different unions for members. Our intention from this great step forward is to unite the whole sector into one education union — over one million strong.

“This won’t be a magic solution to our problems but it will help massively. We need to organise and reorganise to take on the people destroying state education and defeat them.”