NI teachers announce upcoming date of further strike action
Northern Ireland teachers are today officially informing their employers of their intention to strike later this month.
Announcing that they will go to strike on January 18, Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers’ Union said that the unions have been "left with no option but to formally inform our employers of our decision".
"Before Christmas[1] we had already mooted this but unfortunately during the interim there has been no last minute resolution to our pay and conditions dispute,” Jacquie added.
“UTU, alongside the four other main teaching unions in Northern Ireland, has therefore been left with no option but to formally inform our employers of our decision. It is with the heaviest of hearts that each and every member feels cornered into this action given that our long-running pay claim began in 2020.
"Alternative lesser actions have unfortunately made no difference in securing Northern Ireland teachers parity with their counterparts elsewhere in GB.
"With newly qualified teachers’ salaries here an astonishing £8,000 below those just a few miles away in, for instance, Scotland, we can no longer allow our profession to be treated so contemptibly.
"Despite the fact that funding for the public sector pay claim has been identified within the offer made by the Secretary of State, there appears to be no political will – or plan - to deliver.
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"Meanwhile teachers continue to hold together a system which is crumbling beneath the weight of long-term under-investment, a system which is short-changing our children and risking our future socio-economic success as a country."
Jacquie said the teaching profession is "haemorrhaging its best people" and failing to attract the candidates which until now "have given Northern Ireland[6] such an edge when it comes to our pupil outcomes".
"For too long now we, as teachers, have been papering over the cracks and doing our very best to make a broken system work. However, the savage nature of cuts in recent times is having an undeniable ripple effect that goes a long way beyond the classroom.
"Our industrial action is about advocating for a better future for our children who are being denied essential services.
"We do not want to be in this position but we intend to fulfil the commitment we made before Christmas and engage in further action until this issue is resolved.
"We would call on the Department of Education, local politicians and the Secretary of State to deliver a mechanism for resolution."
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References
- ^ Christmas (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
- ^ First ever strike ballot of junior doctors in Northern Ireland opens (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
- ^ Northern Ireland nurses to take strike action later this month over failure to award pay deal (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
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