Teachers to hold strike demo on Morecambe prom

A demonstration is to be held by the National Education Union (NEU) in support of teachers, the NHS and other public services at the Eric Morecambe statue in Morecambe tomorrow, Thursday, from 11am.

And Sam Ud-din, Lancaster & Morecambe district secretary for the NEU, said if the latest round of negotiations is unsuccessful, more strike action will be planned for later in the summer term.

"Pay for experienced teachers has fallen by one fifth in real terms since 2010," Mr Ud-din said.

"And now Britain is facing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. Yet while your bills keep going up, your pay is not keeping pace.

"Energy bills are soaring, inflation is at 12.3 per cent (August 2022) – a 40-year high, but the Government is suggesting experienced teachers’ pay should only go up by five per cent this year. This is a seven per cent cut.

"Long hours and poor pay are the main reasons teachers are leaving the profession in their droves. This Government is presiding over one of the worst recruitment and retention crises ever seen in education.

"Many schools will be closed or nearly fully-closed again this week and next in Lancaster and Morecambe, with pickets again at several.

"We thank parents and well-wishers for the support that they are continuing to show.

"Children are losing out though every day because there are not enough teachers. Even when there is a teacher in the classroom, increasingly they are not qualified in the subject they are teaching.

"Parents and grandparents hear their children and grandchildren talking about ‘new’ teachers in the middle of the school year; of lessons being ‘covered’ by supply teachers, of teachers leaving. Lack of qualified teachers harms the education that children and young people receive.

"To save education, we know that we must take action to ensure that educators get an inflation-plus pay increase that is absolutely fully-funded.

"There is enough money in the economy as a whole to afford the pay corrections we need for teachers, nurses and other public sector staff.

"It is a question of priorities for government – they have held pay down since 2010 – but nothing like the same restrictions have applied to profits or bonuses.

"For example, if the government were to equalise the tax rates on unearned income (that is on share dividends etc.) with the tax rates on earned income (that is on our wages) that would bring in an extra £14bn – more than enough for the pay rises for the whole of the public sector."

If negotiations are not successful a re-ballot of teacher members in England will run from May 15 until the end of July and a three-day strike timetabled for late June/early July to be confirmed by the NEU Executive on May 18.

"We call on everyone, including every MP, to tell the government to negotiate a proper settlement immediately," Mr Ud-din added.

"Many MPs have already supported us in the north west – but we have yet to get any reply offering progress from David Morris in Morecambe & Lunesdale, so we will be taking our message to him on Thursday."