News: Do you support teacher strikes?

 Another day, another story about industrial action.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary, NEU recently went on BBC Newsnight and discussed what will happen if the Government does not take action on teacher pay and workload.

Video from National Education Union - YouTube

It was recently announced that teacher members of the National Education Union in England and Wales and support staff in Wales voted overwhelmingly for strike action and the ballot has successfully surpassed the restrictive thresholds set by Government for strike action.

When voting to back strike action, NEU members were asked the following question: "The question put was, "Are you prepared to take strike action in furtherance of this dispute?".

A statement on the NEU website reads:

"The union is declaring seven days of strike action in February and March, though any individual school will only be affected by four of them. The first will be on will be on Wednesday 1 February, affecting 23,400 schools in England and Wales. Teacher members in sixth form colleges in England, who have already been balloted and taken strike action in recent months, will also take action on these days in a separate but linked dispute with the Secretary of State.

Three ballots for support staff were also conducted simultaneous to the teacher ballots in England and Wales.

In England, a ballot result of support staff in schools saw a 84.13% majority vote YES on a turnout of 46.46%. This result, despite being hugely in favour of action, just missed the Government's restrictive thresholds."

Read more here: NEU to take strike action over pay | NEU 

Are you in favour?

Some of our readers have already shown their support towards strikers. Sophies from Manchester: "I support those teachers wholeheartedly whilst UK successive governments fail them on so many levels. Good luck to all educators."

Another reader agreed with Sophie. They said: "So many teachers work well past the school opening hours. I support of all them.

Danny said: "I support the need and requirement for better pay and better working conditions. However, I'm not I support the strike action. It's only the students and pupils that will suffer. Ultimately, it's a complete mess."

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