Teachers' strike could disrupt south-east London and north Kent schools
4:08pm Friday 7th September 2012 in News
Christine Blower says the Government's negative approach to the teaching profession 'has to stop'
CHILDREN may have only just returned, but schools could be out again soon after teachers voted to go on strike.
The action is over the "erosion" of their pay and working conditions, it has been announced.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said its ballot of members had shown that 82.5 per cent were in favour of walkouts, with a turnout of 27 per cent.
Members also voted for industrial action short of strikes, with 91.6 per cent in favour, the union said. The result raises the threat of huge disruption to schools later this term.
The NUT, which has previously balloted members over changes to public sector pensions, has warned of joint strikes with the NASUWT teachers' union The NASUWT already has a mandate to take industrial action over the same issues.
The NUT said the two unions will be campaigning together to "ensure that the onslaught of attacks on the teaching profession stops". Further details of the campaign will be set out on Monday.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: "The NUT is left with no option but to take action to protect the well-being of our members and restore their rights to do their job thoroughly and properly.
"Teachers are being undermined by a Government whose almost daily criticisms and erosion of working conditions and pay, coming on top of previous attacks on pensions, are unacceptable. This negative approach to the profession has to stop.
"No other profession comes under such continual scrutiny and no other profession has accountability systems based on so little trust. This is bound to lower morale. It is time for Government to stop dictating to teachers and address the problems which they are creating. It is time to listen to the profession."
Are you in support of the teachers’ threat to strike? Do you think teachers should be allowed to walk out and disrupt children’s school time? Add your comments below.
Comments(8)
bexleyman
says...
10:58pm Fri 7 Sep 12
cherished wrote:I completely concur.
Most teachers do the job because they actually want to educate, not remove the education from children. The issue is that the government have made so many attacks on teachers that it's time to stop that and allow teachers to enjoy the job and its benefits that they have trained so hard for and indeed, continue to train for. During a strike, children can continue with the piles of homework they get set, therefore education is not disrupted too much.
Teachers will not have entered into this lightly but they dedicate their lives to helping our young. They work immensely long days, they spend at least half of their weekends hard at work (those who are fortunate enough to maintain their sanity & achieve some sort of work-life balance) and their holidays are not what they seem. Half terms are merely spent catching up on what there has not been time for in the summer.
Head down to your local school in the summer holidays, you will see a hive of activity as staff come in voluntarily for weeks on end to devise innovative ways and plan excellent learning for our children.
Teachers are true professional heroes. It is a crying shame that the government and press routinely attempt to undermine their status as even a profession or anything more than a job which we should look upon with little more than derision.
Teachers do not do it for the money. But I'd like to give them enough to keep a decent car on the road, a mortgage on a reasonable house and a decent summer holiday. I know we all struggle to achieve these things, but that is no reason to begrudge our heroic teachers their worth
Brian Sewer3
says...
10:03am Sat 8 Sep 12
cynical-mum
says...
3:08pm Sat 8 Sep 12
cherished
says...
7:54pm Sat 8 Sep 12
cynical-mum wrote:Teachers can belong to different unions, not just NUT. Also teachers can then choose to actually walk out or not. Schools make different provisions according to how many are out on the day, for instance only having in certain year groups. It all depends on how many staff not in the school that day. Of course staff are not allowed to cover for absent colleagues but at the end of the day, they still have a choice if they want to strike or not.
out of a turn out of 27% only 82.5% agree to strike, so presuming 100% of teachers have to be a member of the N.U.T that means the teachers may strike on the say so of approx a quarter of their number? thats really democratic
old nick
says...
8:31pm Sat 8 Sep 12
plasticfantastic
says...
10:07pm Sat 8 Sep 12
You teachers don;t get a bad deal, 3 months holiday for a start.
Come and join the police and pay 13.7% of your earnings into your pension, then you might have something to moan about.
Guess who ;) AGAIN !
says...
11:34am Sun 9 Sep 12
Teachers deserve every penny they get, that goes for nurses, doctors, and REAL coppers too.
cherished says...
6:57pm Fri 7 Sep 12