Teachers will join wave of public sector strikes with 7 days of walkouts in February and March
16 January 2023, 17:06 | Updated: 17 January 2023, 03:42
Tens of thousands of teachers have voted to join the mass public sector strikes, as nurses announce further walkouts.
Turnout for the teachers' ballot was over 50 percent, with "almost all" voting in favour of industrial action in a dispute over pay, HuffPost UK reported, with nine out of 10 backing strike action.
The NEU organised a ballot of around 300,000 members demanding a "fully funded, above-inflation pay rise".
Seven days of strikes by teachers who are members of the union in February and March have been declared by the union, but it has said that any school will only be affected by four of the days.
The first day of walkouts will be on February 1 with over 23,000 schools in England and Wales expected to be affected.
The NEU said in a statement: "The ballot is a result of failure by the secretary of state in England and the employers in Wales to ensure enough money is available to pay a fully-funded increase in pay for teachers which at least matches inflation, and which begins to restore lost pay."
Support staff in schools in Wales are also set to go walkout over pay after 88 percent of members balloted voted in favour of striking, with a turnout of 51 percent.
🚨 The results are in! 🚨
— National Education Union (@NEUnion) January 16, 2023
In our ballot, NEU members have voted in overwhelming numbers to take historic strike action for a fully funded, above-inflation pay rise. We have to save our schools.
But support staff in schools and sixth-form colleges in England won't be striking, after falling short of the legal threshold needed for industrial action.
Joint general secretary of the NEU Mary Bousted said: “We have continually raised our concerns with successive education secretaries about teacher and support staff pay and its funding in schools and colleges, but instead of seeking to resolve the issue they have sat on their hands."
The government still insists pay demands are unaffordable and says it believes wage increases should be decided by pay review bodies.
Earlier, ahead of the results of the the ballot, the PM's official spokesperson said: "We would continue to call on teachers not to strike given we know what substantial damage was caused to children's education during the pandemic and it's certainly not something we want to see repeated.
"We would hope they would continue to discuss with us their concerns rather than withdraw education from children," he added.
The full list of strike days the NEU has announced are:
- Wednesday, February 1: all eligible members in England and Wales
- Tuesday, February 14: all eligible members in Wales
- Tuesday, February 28: all eligible members in Northern, North West, Yorkshire & The Humber regions
- Wednesday, March 1: all eligible members in East Midlands, West Midlands, Eastern regions
- Thursday, March 2: all eligible members in London, South East, South West regions
- Wednesday, March 15: all eligible members in England and Wales
- Thursday, March 16: all eligible members in England and Wales
Shortly after, the Royal College of Nursing announced that nurses would strike on February 6 and 7.
More NHS trusts will take part in the walkouts than during the two previous days of strike in December, in an escalation of industrial action.
Nurses at 55 NHS trusts in England were already set to walkout on Wednesday and Thursday, but more now strikes have been scheduled for early February, with action expanding to 73 NHS trusts in England and 12 in Wales.
The union said it will not take action in Northern Ireland in February, while action in Scotland remains on hold as talks continue.
