Pupils face strikes as 90% of teachers back walkout
MILLIONS of pupils could face fresh chaos as teachers are set to walk out in September.
The National Education Union (NEU) has declared that ‘strikes are on the table’ and said it may launch a formal ballot for national industrial action in the autumn term.
Daniel Kebede, hard-Left general secretary of the NEU – Britain’s largest education union – said ministers must ‘take seriously’ the threat.
He added that Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has to ‘start engaging in a meaningful way’.
The union also congratulated itself
‘It would cause more disruption’
yesterday for ‘saving lives’ by ‘forcing Government to change policy’ during the pandemic and imposing Covid measures in schools, which some parents claimed damaged pupils’ learning.
The proposed strike would aim to secure an above-inflation pay rise and further funding for staffing.
Last week, a preliminary ballot of around half of the union’s members found 90 per cent were in favour of industrial action.
Today, activists at the NEU’s annual conference in Bournemouth will vote on whether to ‘ build capacity’ to facilitate a strike.
However, Mr Kebede said that whatever the outcome, the union’s executive still has the power to launch a formal ballot.
He said: ‘[ Teachers are] essentially realising that this Government is burning down the house.’ He indicated that any strike would last for a significant period, saying: ‘I don’t think any teacher wants to take any token action. The action that we took last year certainly wasn’t token – it was eight days.’
He added: ‘Gillian Keegan should really be listening... We’ve had nearly 150,000 teachers vote for strike action. She has to take that seriously.
‘The last meeting I had with her was abysmal… I’m ready to open up some serious talks so we don’t end up on a collision course.’
The motion due to be debated today suggests that NEU members are ‘prepared to act industrially’ if Rishi Sunak or Sir Keir Starmer ‘fail to deliver’ on teachers’ pay.
Last month, the Department for Education (DfE) gave evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations on teachers’ pay. The DfE said that pay awards should ‘return to a more sustainable level’ after ‘two unprecedented years’.
In July last year, the Government agreed to implement the STRB’s advised 6.5 per cent pay increase for teachers in England, and co-ordinated strike action by four education unions was called off.
A DfE spokesman said: ‘The independent STRB is considering evidence for this year’s pay award. Unions should engage with this process instead of striking before they even know what the pay recommendations are. Further strike action would cause more disruption to pupils who have already lost more than 25 million school days due to last year’s industrial action.
‘Overall school funding is rising to more than £60 billion in 2024/25, its highest ever level in real terms per pupil. Teachers have already benefited from two historic pay awards totalling more than 12 per cent in just two years.’