That's It - We're Going On Strike!

Today some 400 000 teachers went on strike over pay issues.  The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is arguing that the recent recommended pay increase by the Government, which equates to a 2.45% rise this year and 2.3% in 2009 and 2010, is below the rate of inflation and therefore equates to a pay cut.  As a result, the members of the NUT were balloted about strike action and apparently 75% of teachers voted to strike.

With about 65 teaching staff, 50 of which in the NUT, we managed to close our school today, like many other schools across the country.  This has actually been I think my 3rd strike since teaching in the UK - I think the other 2 strikes were about 'London weighting' (an additional sum given to workers in London to help compensate for the high cost of living) and I think about pensions, but I can't be too sure on that one.  Either way, in each strike we formed a picket line outside the school - we didn't actually manage to deter anyone from crossing our line (not that I'm aware of anyway) but we did manage to turn the garbage man around, so the bins weren't emptied today!

After our picket we went to the Lambeth Town Hall for a mini-meeting (plus breakfast) and then we marched through the streets of Brixton, waving our banners, before getting on the bus and heading up for the big march on Westminster.  I have to say, I have never seen anything like it, there were so many teachers there!  In fact, I had to whip off quickly to get some music for my kid's band rehearsal tonight, so I left the march at Trafalgar Square, ran up to Wardour St and went to the music store, came back with the intention of joining my colleagues later for lunch. Now if you know London at all, you'd know it would've taken me at least 40 minutes to get from Trafalgar Square to Wardour Street, buy music, and get back down to Whitehall - and the march was still going...! That's how many teachers took part in the march!

You can read reports about the strike here, or have a look at my little video presentation: One thing's for sure though, this is only the beginning...