The two largest teaching unions are to hold one-day strikes next month as their dispute with the government over changes to pay, pensions, working conditions and jobs escalates.
Members of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers and of the National Union of Teachers will strike on 1 October in the Eastern, East Midlands, West Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside regions. On October 17, members will then strike in the remainder of England, except for the northwest, where a strike occurred in June.
They also plan a one-day national strike before the end of the autumn term.
A NASUWT spokesman said grievances encompassed a broad range of objections that teachers have to government reforms of the profession, including the switch to performance-linked pay, which was confirmed by Education Secretary Michael Gove yesterday.
The unions contrasted what they said was the obduracy of Gove with the stance of the Welsh Government, which they said had engaged in talks ‘to seek to avoid the escalation of the rolling programme of strike action in Wales’.
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said teachers were reluctant to strike but ‘with pay pensions and working conditions being systematically attacked and an education secretary who refuses to listen or negotiate teachers now however have no other choice’
Speaking for NASUWT, general secretary Chris Keates said: ‘The attacks on teachers are relentless. The reward for their hard work, dedication and commitment has been a vicious assault on their pay, conditions and professionalism.’
Responding to the announcement, a Department for Education spokesperson said: 'It is disappointing that the NUT and NASUWT are striking over the government’s measures to allow heads to pay good teachers more.
'In a recent poll, 61% of respondents supported linking teachers’ pay to performance and 70% either opposed the strikes or believed that teachers should not be allowed to strike at all.'
