Can a Teacher's Strike be Justified?
On Thursday 24th April 2008 the National Union of Teachers held its first strike in 21years, arguing that for the third year in a row, the 2.5% pay increase amount to a real terms pay cut.
Thousands of members turned out to support this day of action. It shows the NUT made the right decision to call upon its members to strike. Erosion of teachers’ pay is now firmly on the public agenda as a result. We have highlighted the case for pay which at least keeps up with the rate of inflation as measured by RPI.
“One message that came across loud and clear from our young teacher members is that a combination of declining pay rates and unacceptable workload is driving them out of the profession at an alarming rate. They feel undervalued by a government that asks them to repay student loans at a rate of 4.8% yet only wants to give them a pay increase of 2.45%.
“The review body made clear that if inflation increased beyond 3.25% then the pay negotiations could be reopened. This provides the Government with an opportunity to act to improve pay prospects for teachers.”
Christine Blower, Acting General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, taken from website of the NUT
However, the strike action was not without criticism:
The fact that the ballot for strike action was supported by less than a quarter of the NUT membership - which constitutes about a tenth of the whole teaching force - counts for little in what is clearly an attempt by the NUT leadership to exercise political muscle.
His [Steve Simnott, the late General Secretary of the NUT] insistence that the 2.45 per cent pay rise on offer constitutes a "real-terms pay cut" is at odds with the views of other teaching unions.
Mr Sinnott's pointed remark that this pay offer is reminiscent of the "bad old days" before 1997 is clearly an attempt to threaten a Labour government that is perceived to be weak, with a return to the militancy that public sector unions once used to such effect in national power struggles.
What makes this particular skirmish particularly unpalatable is that it is aimed at schoolchildren. At a time when so much concern is being expressed in all quarters about the calamitous decline in Britain's educational standards, the decision of the country's largest teaching union to withdraw its labour seems extraordinarily irresponsible.
Taken from the online Daily Telegraph
Did you, as a Christian teacher, participate in the strike action? How did you feel about the strike? How do you feel about the governments pay offer? Does the Christian perspective on the dispute bring any fresh thinking?
Your views and experience on the strike action
Be the first to add your comments!