UK: Strike threat remains in place after ‘provocative’ Education Secretary letter
Two unions in the UK, representing nine out of 10 teachers, have reaffirmed their commitment to a jointly coordinated campaign, Protect Teachers and Defend Education. This action by the UK’s two largest teachers’ unions, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), comes in response to the 6 November letter from Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education. The NUT and NASUWT are both EI affiliates.
The unions’ strike action across England on 27 June and on 1 and 17 October received overwhelming support. Since then, the NUT and the NASUWT had welcomed confirmation that the Education Secretary was willing to seek to secure talks on the unions’ demands on teachers’ pay, pensions, workload and conditions of service and jobs.
In response to the Secretary of State’s willingness to engage in talks, the NASUWT and NUT had agreed to:
• Suspend the planned national day of strike action scheduled to take place in the Autumn 2013 term
• Engage constructively in an agreed programme of talks with the Secretary of State to discuss the unions’ trade disputes
• Seek progress in the talks with the Secretary of State
• Review progress of the talks by January 2014
Disappointment at Secretary of State’s provocation
However, the NUT and the NASUWT are disappointed that the Secretary of State’s letter of 6 November resorts to what the unions describe as ‘provocation’, rather than seeking genuinely to negotiate a resolution to the union dispute.
In his letter, Gove reiterates that “talks would focus on implementation of policy, given that the direction of policy on pay and pensions is fixed”. This indicates that there is no meaningful discussion about the issues under dispute.
In response, the NUT and the NASUWT have confirmed that plans remain in place for a national strike in England and Wales no later than 13 February 2014 in the event of insufficient progress through negotiation.
EI: Gove must respect union rights
“We firmly support our UK colleagues in their struggle to ensure decent living and working for teachers, as well as quality education in their country,” Martin Rømer, the Director of EI’s European region, the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), said. “The Secretary of State for Education must commit to genuine talks to seek resolution of the trade disputes. Mr Gove must respect education staff’s basic trade union rights.”
