St.Helens on strike

The support for strike action in St. Helens exceeded the Union’s expectations. We found that even schools that never get in touch with the Union or come to union meetings were solidly behind the strike. The result was that the majority of school pupils in St. Helens were told to stay at home. It’s a reminder that we teachers have a really powerful strike weapon.

The government said we only had the support of a minority of our members but on the day when members had the choice to strike or go to work, they nearly all came out. That’s the ballot that really counts!

There was even an independent school that told its pupils to stay at home after members there were balloted as a result of an administrative error! The teachers had to go in because they were not legally covered by the ballot, but they have asked to be balloted properly next time!

We went down to the rally in Liverpool and it was great. We had a banner made specially for the occasion which really stood out and brought the journalists to us. It was really good to feel the solidarity between members of different public sector unions. They booked a hotel room for 500 people for an indoor rally after the march and they had to turn 200 people away because of fire regulations!

The government are claiming support from parents but the local newspapers can only get quotes from the local chamber of commerce to criticise our strike. In fact, our members are reporting support from parents, even when they are seriously affected. More parents are like us, fed up with below inflationary pay increases than are worried about their employees not being able to come to work.

Members who came on the rally are already talking about ‘next time’. It is clear that we need to build for further action to get the government to back down. Other public sector unions are looking to come onboard so that will strengthen our position and enable us to win a victory for all public sector workers.

Robin Pye