Teachers’ strike a ‘genuine possibility’

Mar 1 2008 by Abbie Wightwick, Western Mail

UNION leaders yesterday revealed the date on which teachers in Wales could take their first strike action in a generation over the issue of pay.

If the 16,500 NUT Cymru members being balloted on the issue agree to take action they will walk out of classrooms on April 24, at the start of the GCSE exam season.

David Evans, secretary of NUT Cymru characterised the mood among teachers at the government’s below-inflation 2.3% pay offer as “angry”.

Teachers have not taken strike action on pay for more than 20 years in Wales.

Mr Evans predicted a strike was likely but pledged that no exams would be affected.

Although some practical and oral examinations take place as early as March, no GCSEs are scheduled for that day according to exam boards. But if this changes teachers involved will not be asked to walk out, Mr Evans pledged.

“The ballot has opened and it will close on March 31”, he said.

“There is a genuine possibility of a strike. We would not be balloting members if we did not think so. They are pretty angry.

“There are no plans now for additional strike days but there is the option to review that. This is an exercise in demonstrating that teachers have had enough.”

He said teachers have been losing the equivalent of £2 per day over the years, which had built up to a “significant amount” as a result of a series of below-inflation pay rises.

Margaret Morrissey, spokesperson for the Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations in England and Wales said her organisation believed most parents would support a strike if it did not affect their children’s education.

However, Mrs Morrissey – who first took her post with the confederation during the lengthy teachers’ strike of 1984 – said the NUT Cymru must ensure it communicates well with parents.

“It is really sad in this day and age that teachers feel this is what they need to do,” she said.

“The government should sit down and work it out with them and provide a proper pay structure.

“A lot of parents will support them but once, and if, the action affects education then that support might flow away.”

She warned that during the 1980s strike parents finally lost patience with teachers when children were repeatedly sent home from school.

The NASUWT Cymru and Welsh language teaching union Ucac have already said they will not be striking although their members are also angered by the pay offer.

Ucac described the award as “depressing’’ and said its members did not back the offer which they believed was too low. But members, most of whom were primary school teachers, were too worried about their jobs under reorganisation to consider a walk out, general secretary Gruff Hughes said.

Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced in January a 2.45% pay rise for teachers in Wales and England this year and 2.3% rises in 2009 and 2010.

The 2.4% award is lower than the previous pay award of 2.5% but above the Government’s preferred measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index, which is running at 2.1%.

The NUT and other unions have argued that the Retail Price Index measure – which includes mortgages – showed that the true level of inflation was running at 4.3%.

“The CPI does not include things such as housing. Well, we’ve all got to live somewhere haven’t we?,” Mr Evans said.

But Gordon Brown is determined to keep inflation under control by capping public sector pay increases at 2%.

Mr Evans said there was no support for devolving teachers’ pay which is currently worked out for Wales and England on recommendations by the School Teachers’ Review Body.

Money that would go to the Assembly for teachers’ pay in Wales would be less than it is now under the Barnett formula funding mechanism, he said.

The NUT has formally told Education Minister Jane Hutt and her predecessors that members did not want pay devolved for this reason.

There is a genuine possibility of a strike. We would not be balloting members if we did not think so