Teachers from four unions in England say they will join forces in the event of a strike over pay, which could result in complete school closures in the autumn term.
Currently, only the National Education Union (NEU) has sufficient support from its members to organize walkouts. The next strike is scheduled for Tuesday.
However, the three remaining unions, including two for principals, are asking their members if they wish to strike.
The government asserted that coordinated action would be “illogical.”
The four unions involved in the dispute are the National Education Union, the National Association of School and College Leaders, and the National Association of Head Teachers.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, described their decision to coordinate activities as an “unprecedented display of unity.”
Kevin Courtney, NEU joint general secretary, said coordinated strike action would effect every state school in England.
Between 300,000 and 400,000 teachers could be involved, he said during a joint press conference at the Telford conference of the National Association of Head Teachers.
“We would sincerely apologize to parents if we were forced to disrupt their children’s education,” he added.
Many instructors will soon be asked a second time if they wish to strike.
This year, three of the unions have already held elections. Nonetheless, when the results were announced in January, only the NEU had sufficient support to proceed with strikes.
Since February, the NEU has held walkouts, and it is about to ballot its members, asking if they wish to continue to strike action into the next school year.
Both the NASUWT and the NAHT failed to satisfy the required turnout threshold for a strike in England in their most recent ballots, but both will ballot their members before the start of the next school year.
ASCL, the fourth union, will vote on its membership for the first time in its history.
Shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson stated that the issue was caused by the government’s “failure to negotiate seriously,” adding that the joint strike action “demonstrates the extent of anger and dissatisfaction” among teachers.
During NEU strike days in February and March, more than half of England’s 22,000 schools closed or partially closed.
If members of multiple unions, including principals, walked out together, more schools would likely close entirely.
A Department of Education spokeswoman stated, “It is unreasonable and disproportionate for unions to coordinate strike action to cause maximum disruption to schools, especially given the impact the pandemic has already had on their learning.”
The joint announcement follows the NAHT’s announcement that members would vote again on remuneration, funding, workload, and well-being.
Katie Chilvers, a Year 1 teacher in Birmingham, has walked out in support of the NEU strike action this year.
Thursday, however, she did not participate in the latest strike because she could not “justify” losing another day’s pay.
She stated that, on average, we would lose approximately £80 per day.
She said she wanted to help by “spreading the word” on social media.
According to the NEU, members can petition for access to hardship funds.
What are the remuneration demands of educators?
The majority of state school instructors in England received a 5% pay increase in 2022. And a 3% increase is proposed for September 2023.
The unions want above-inflation raises and more money to avoid cutting school budgets.
After the strikes in February, the government made a new pay offer to school teachers that included a one-time payment of £1,000 and a 4.3% pay increase for the majority of staff in September.
The government promised to raise English teachers’ starting salaries to £30,000 by September.
The Department of Education dubbed it a “fair and reasonable offer” and promised schools £2.3 billion over two years.
In December, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) stated that the increased funding would result in school expenditure per pupil “growing in real terms through 2024 and returning to at least 2010 levels.”
Four unions unanimously rejected the offer. They said schools would have had to make further cuts because it wasn’t fully funded.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said the offer was off, therefore the independent pay review panel would decide the salary.
