Tributes to teacher who led union
A FORMER teachers’ union leader from Staffordshire has died at the age of 83.
Friends and colleagues of Phil Horton, who represented thousands of teachers across the county, have described him as a quietly spoken yet incredibly effective negotiator.
He also helped champion the workplace rights of classroom teachers, and it was while teaching woodwork and technical drawing at Walton High, in Stafford, that he first got a taste of life as a union rep in the 1980s.
Mr Horton became the NASUWT’S county federation secretary and then its national executive member for Staffordshire after rising through the ranks.
His skills became crucial when the county’s schools were hit by falling pupil rolls in the early 1990s, which brought the spectre of job losses.
Former Leek teacher and education official Mike Inman, who also had a spell as national executive member, said: “He represented many members in schools at local reorganisation meetings very effectively, so that compulsory redundancies were avoided.
“His persistence and inscrutable manner in negotiations made it difficult for those opposite to ascertain what he was thinking or to anticipate his next negotiation tactic.” He was also heavily involved in the scouting movement and served as district commissioner for the Stafford area, Stokeontrentlive reports. When he retired, he concentrated on his other passion - sailing. He even built his own boat in his back garden in Stafford, which he would sail at Rudyard Lake. Eventually, he acquired a much larger boat, which he moored at Caernarfon, where he was then living.
He later became commodore of the Royal Welsh Yacht Club and would sail his boat ‘Annarchy’ as far afield as France, the Channel Islands and Scilly Isles. Mr Horton moved back to Stafford when his partner began to have health problems and they lived in supported accommodation. Richard Hinton, former Staffordshire secretary, said: “He will be very much missed by the NASUWT members, who will be thankful to him for his fight for their jobs and rights. He belonged to an era when service mattered.”
NASUWT members will be thankful to him for his fight for their jobs and rights
Richard Hinton