School's out: 200,000 teachers strike in biggest shutdown for three decades

Parts of Britain will grind to a halt today as around 200,000 teachers take part in their largest strike for three decades, closing classrooms in 85 per cent of schools. Half a million university staff, train drivers, Border Force workers, civil servants and security guards are predicted to take part in a coordinated day of industrial action on “Walkout Wednesday”. NHS patients and nursery children could be disproportionately affected as staff, many of them women, are forced to stay home to look after school-age pupils. Most trains in England will not run, queues are predicted at airports and 600 military personnel are being drafted in to support public services. Downing Street conceded that the level of strike action would make it “very difficult for the public trying to go about their daily lives”. The walkouts across multiple sectors come as unions step up their campaign for higher pay rises from the government. They coincide with marches and rallies across the country after the Trades Union Congress called on all workers, not just those in the public sector, to protest in support of the right to strike. On the eve of the strikes, the largest teaching union the NEU said an extra 40,000 members had joined in the past fortnight. Alongside the 127,000 members who originally voted to strike and others expected to take part, union sources said they expect 200,000 teachers to walk out.