Teachers hold national strike in Britain

Teachers across Britain went on strike March 26 over pay, pensions and teaching conditions. The National Union of Teachers got the support of many, but not all, parents.

The teachers in London marched on the prime minister’s residence on Downing Street.

Tom Davies, past president of the NUT chapter in Ealing, a western suburb of London, told News Line, a small socialist-oriented daily: “It’s going to be really effective. All I hear from different NUT Secretaries across the London Region is that they will be out solid.

“The majority of schools in London should be closed or running a skeletal service and nationally I’m sure it will be similar.

“We have a secretary of state for education who is not only ignorant but arrogant and won’t talk to the trade unions, so strike action is our only alternative.

“The issues are workload, pay and pensions. Teachers’ conditions have been completely undermined over the past four years and of course we are now faced with performance-related pay, to which we are completely opposed.”