Union warns teacher strikes could last until Christmas
NEU workers across Lancashire are back out on strike this morning
Schools and colleges across the North West will be hit with two more days of disruption beginning this week (27 April and 2 May) as members of the National Education Union (NEU) take strike days five and six in their long-running dispute about pay and school funding. On earlier strikes dates 15% of schools have been forced to close completely and up to 70% were only partially open, often just to exam year groups or children from vulnerable families.
The latest strikes come after the union announced at its Easter conference in Harrogate (3 April) that 98% of members, on an impressive turn-out of 66%, had rejected the latest offer made by Gillian Keegan, Secretary of State for Education. That translates as 191,319 serving teachers in state schools in England who voted online over six days to seek further improvements from the government.
Commenting in advance of the strikes, the NEU’s North West Regional Secretary, Peter Middleman said:
“In rejecting the governments wholly inadequate offer in such overwhelming numbers earlier this month, teachers have sent Gillian Keegan an unmistakeably clear message.
"Her petulant response has been to walk away from any further discussion, which represents a slap-in-the-face to the profession and a gratuitous insult to parents who are still strongly behind the campaign for better school funding and a resolution to the recruitment and retention crisis for the sector.
"This dispute is not going away, and soon after this round of industrial action we’ll be balloting members again – as the law requires – to refresh the mandate for further strikes after the summer break and up until Christmas.
"It may be that Ms Keegan has been unable, rather than unwilling, to persuade the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the seriousness of the financial and staffing crisis facing schools but either way, with all four teaching unions now in dispute on the same terms, time is running out to avoid a serious escalation with all of the additional disruption that would bring to learning and to the wider economy.”
The NEU has asked its local officials to seek voluntary agreements with individual headteachers to ensure that revision and exam practice lessons for students facing GCSE and A-Level examinations this term are not affected by the strikes and have indicated that dispensation will be provided to members in discreet circumstances on both of the announced strike days.