Fresh strike vote for teachers

Executive members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) unanimously voted to proceed with a formal ballot at a meeting on Friday afternoon.

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said: "This is a campaign that becomes more relevant with each passing month. With food prices up 40%, utilities up over 30%, along with general inflation now running at 5%, teachers, particularly young teachers, are suffering."

She continued: "Refusing teachers a decent salary will have a direct impact on children and young people's education. Recruitment has already taken a dive as graduates choose better paid and less stressful careers. A recent survey showed teachers are working ever longer hours; more work for decreasing pay.

"The Secretary of State must act to halt the spiral of decline in teachers' pay. Teachers and other public sector worker unions cannot and will not stand by and see their members' incomes and standards of living cut."

The ballot, of all NUT members, is part of the union's ongoing Fair Pay for Teachers campaign.

The NUT represents almost 250,000 teachers and headteachers and is England's biggest teaching union.

A strike by NUT members on April 24 is estimated to have affected up to 9,500 schools and around 2.9 million children. The action sought to convince the Government to change its mind about a proposed 2.45% pay rise for teachers this year.

Teachers received that pay increase this month, but the union argues that it is not enough when inflation rates are now at 5%.

Ms Blower said: "It's true teachers have been paid the 2.45%. But that's less than half of the inflation rate, so it is effectively a pay cut."