Derby NEU Says: FUND our Schools and PAY our educators!

 Following our MASSIVE ballot result, where on a 53% turnout 90% of NEU teachers in England voted for strike action and on 46% turnout 84% of our support staff members in England voted for strike action, the NEU announced 7 dates of strike action immediately.

Our first national day of action was on Wednesday 1 February and it was MASSIVE. In the run-up to the strike over 40,000 new members joined the NEU nationally and we had 200 new members in Derby.

We had 4 new reps elected in schools that didn't have reps before the ballot, just in one week. We have had more reps step forward since. The strike has given our members a new confidence, knowing that we can stand together and say that enough is enough. 

Enough of years of cuts to school budgets.

Enough of years of real-term pay cuts.

Enough of years of rising workloads and rising stress.

Enough of teachers and support staff leaving education because their jobs disappear, or they can't make ends meet, or they simply can't keep working the hours we do for the money on offer.

Enough of seeing public services under attack. We were proud to show solidarity with and receive solidarity from members of our sister unions ASLEF, UCU and PCS on the day. We extend our solidarity to other striking unions the RCN, UNISON, CWU, RMT. We thank the NASUWT and UNISON for their messages of support. We congratulate the FBU on their ballot result and look forward to standing alongside firefighters on future pickets and rallies.

Enough of attacks on our democratic rights. The government is trying to pass legislation to force members not to strike. So-called 'minimum service' requirements would effectively remove our right to withhold our labour. This is why we struck on the day of the TUC's day of action to defend the right to strike, as the chair of Derby Trades Council (DATUC) explained in her speech.

We had pickets in schools that have never picketed before. We had hundreds join our strike breakfast, march and rally.

Dozens stayed to organise for the next East Midlands strike date on 1 March. We formed a strike committee and will do everything we can to make 1 March even bigger.

Let us be clear: The NEU has over 300,000 teachers determined to stop the rot in education and make our service fit for the students and the staff. If the government does not find the funding then we will continue to act. Years of campaigning and protesting at cuts to pay and funding has not moved the government. Yet when we and our sister unions announced our intention to ballot for strike action, suddenly the government found money to restore per-pupil funding to 2015 levels in the next academic year. That would take education back to only FIVE years of cuts, instead of thirteen. Good, but in the context of massive inflation and increases in energy costs, not NEARLY enough.

As we prepare for the next strike date on 1 March, let's remember what we have already achieved and be determined to keep the pressure on the government.