School strike plans ‘to impact every school in Hertfordshire’, union claims

ROLLING strikes are set to paralyse schools across Welwyn Hatfield in June if teachers’ demands are not met.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is ready to join the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) on the picket line if the government does not back down on changes to wages.

Originally the strikes were threatened for the end of the Easter term but a decision is expected after the unions’ conferences at the end of the month.

Frank Breheny, secretary of the Herts branch of the NUT, said: “The strikes have been postponed and it will be starting in June. It will be strike action and rolling strike action.

“We are planning a joint strike action, there is still talking going on.

“The NUT and NASUWT are negotiating at the moment, hopefully it will be a joint action and that will impact on every school in your area.”

The protest comes after the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove suggested scrapping annual pay increments that allow teachers to climb up the national pay scales, making them dependent on headteachers’ recommendations.

And follows strikes last year over an increase in the amount teachers pay in pension contributions.

Welwyn Hatfield MP Grant Shapps has slammed the unions and hit out at the impact the strikes will have on children.

He told the WHT: “As a local parent I want my children to be able to get a good education without it being disrupted by industrial action in their school. That’s why I very much hope that no strike action is taken.

“The only possible losers will be our children who will miss out on their education.

“I think most parents will share my anxiety, particularly where a parent then has to take time off work and lose out on their own family income.”