Teachers to strike again next week

FOLLOWING on from last week’s widespread strike by non-teaching staff, local teachers have now decided to undertake a new swathe of industrial action.

Altogether, five teaching unions have announced that they will initiate strike action on five days in the coming months in order to press home to the Department of Education the need for improved wages.

The first strike will be a half-day next Wednesday, with a further four full-day strikes planned for January.

Principal of St Patrick’s Primary School in Newtownstewart, Peter Torney, fully backs the planned industrial action.

“Absolutely, I fully endorse the strike action and welcome the escalation of action intended to put pressure on those who can implement a pay rise,” he said. “As I have been saying before, we are not looking for anything special, not looking for anything above and beyond our colleagues in other parts of the UK; it’s about pay equality, not pay superiority.”

He added, “It goes without saying that we are in dire need of massive investment from government and an Education Minister to fight for it. With Stormont down right now, we don’t have that and it’s about time Stormont was working again.”

Commenting on the forthcoming industrial action, Department of Education Permanent Secretary, Dr Mark Browne has said, “Teachers carry out a vital role and deserve to be paid at a fair rate for the work they do. The Department fully understands the frustration of teachers and school leaders over the ongoing absence of a pay offer. It is regrettable that the Department has been unable to offer teachers a pay award for the past three years similar to other jurisdictions, but it is simply unaffordable within an inadequate education budget.

“Continued strike action by trade unions serves only to cause disruption to the education of those who least deserve it, our children and young people, at a time when the Department is forced to work within the challenging position imposed on it by the reduced allocation that education has received in the Secretary of State’s budget.”

Responding to this, Mr Torney agreed that disruption will be a by-product of the strikes, but a necessary one.

He added, “Strike action is absolutely the last resort but it is one to which we have been driven. Teachers all across the North have been, rightly, putting their students’ education first but, given the circumstances in which we now find ourselves, it is time for the teachers to start putting themselves first. All we want is a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.”