TEACHER’S across the North have announced strike action to take place on Tuesday 21 February.
The decision comes after members of NASUWT and INTO teacher’s unions voted overwhelmingly for strike action due to the failure to be offered a fair pay award. Unions are calling for teachers to be given a 12 per cent pay increase.
The strike will last for half a day until 12 noon and follows a campaign of ‘short of strike action’ which has taken place over the past few months.
In Belfast several schools have confirmed their staff will be taking strike action but there are differences between schools as to whether or not they will be open on the morning of Tuesday 21 February.
St Dominic’s Grammar School for Girls on the Falls Road and St Clare’s Primary School on Cupar Street will not be open in the morning but will open fully at noon, whereas teachers at St Mary’s Christian Brother’s School on the Glen Road will be on strike but the school will remain open.
Speaking on the strike action, Justin McCamphill, NASUWT National Official Northern Ireland, said: “Our members would rather be in school working with their pupils but have had no option but to take this action in order to stand up for their right to a salary which reflects the skilled and difficult work they do and which enables them to weather the cost of living crisis.
“The current pay offer is simply insufficient. Teachers are not willing to accept yet another real-terms pay cut and are continuing to fight for a better deal.”
Mr McCamphill continued: “The cost of living crisis has brought this situation to a head and unless the Department and employers act to offer teachers a fair and decent pay award we cannot rule out further strike action in the months to come.”
Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers’ Union speaking as strike action, on the morning Tuesday 21 February, is announced. pic.twitter.com/3pbVIVTEb4
— Ulster Teachers’ Union (@UTU_edu) January 26, 2023
Gerry Murphy, INTO’s Northern Secretary said stagnant wages and rising prices had left teachers subsisting on a 20 per cent pay cut.
“Everyone knows that strike action is a last resort and something that trade unions always try to avoid but our members have voted in favour of strike action because they believe that this action is the only option they have available to send a clear message that they have, since 2010 endured a continual erosion of the real value of their pay which has, in fact, amounted to a 20% per cent pay cut. This simply cannot continue.”
