The next NUT national strike will be on Wednesday 26 March. Every NUT rep and officer now needs to be spreading that news and building for a mass show of strength in opposition to education secretary Gove’s damaging attacks on teachers and education.
We hope that other unions may be willing to coordinate with us in taking strike action on that day. The UCAC teachers’ union in Wales has announced that they will.
The NASUWT meets on 14 February, when they will decide whether to participate.
We need to make clear that this is not just a ‘protest’ but must be part of an ongoing campaign of action intended to defeat the attacks on teachers’ pensions, pay and conditions.
The new NUT parents’ leaflet includes the important points:
- Ensure every classroom has a qualified teacher. Academies and free schools are now allowed to employ unqualified teachers. This is a big threat to standards of education.
- Allow councils to open new schools where they are needed. There is a huge pupil place shortage but councils are not allowed to open new schools. Many councils are driven to putting huts on school playgrounds to cope. The government only allows new ‘free’ schools and these are often in the wrong place.
- Make sure changes to the curriculum and exams are positive and planned
- Ensure there are enough new teachers – stop picking fights with the ones we’ve got
- Michael Gove keeps criticising teachers. Morale is plummeting. Five years after qualifying two in every five teachers are no longer teaching.
Gove is on a mission to cut costs by making teachers work longer hours for less pay and pension. Even more will leave the profession. That’s not just bad for teachers, that’s bad for children’s education.
We must make him think again – we have to build a solid strike on 26 March!
The current battle over pensions is a defining one for our movement. Over two million workers from 24 unions took action together on 30th November in the biggest show of strength in living memory.