Stephen Brown, NEU and Socialist Party member in Oxford
The NEU has reported that a teacher who was at the top of the main pay scale in 2010 has now lost in the region of £64,000 because pay has not kept pace with inflation.
That’s a very good deposit for a mortgage that has been stolen by successive Tory administrations hell-bent on an austerity agenda.
Many teachers are now locked into the rental market, where prices in my neck of the woods have risen by as much as 20% in the past year.
We have two options. Sit tight, don’t strike, and hope the cost-of-living crisis all blows over and the recruitment and retention crisis in schools miraculously improves. (If you think that will happen, then you probably haven’t been paying attention for the last decade!)
Or, instead, join the nurses, railway workers, train drivers, posties, and other public sector workers out on strike. I am proud that my union will be taking part on 1 February.
Some teachers rightly worry that they cannot afford to lose several days’ wages by going on strike. No one takes this step lightly. But the reality is that we can’t afford not to strike.
If this dispute is lost, it will be a green light to the government to continue its attacks on the state education system. This strike is about forcing the government to start showing more respect for our profession. Maybe then we can attract more teachers and deal with the recruitment crisis.
We are not striking alone. When we all strike together the impact is greater and the chances of winning increase. The picket lines and rallies all over the country on 1 February are also about building solidarity between teachers and other workers. Hopefully, if needed, it will be a step towards building further coordinated action in March.
