Strike decision hardest union had to make
9:16am Tuesday 29th November 2011 in Comment
DECIDING to strike was one of the hardest decisions members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) have had to make.
We are not a militant union and this is the first issue on which we have held a national strike in 127 years.
We don’t want to disrupt our students’ education, but if the Government doesn’t treat us fairly children’s education will suffer for decades to come. Older staff will retire early, schools will find it even harder to recruit heads, young teachers with families won’t be able to afford to stay in the pension scheme and the best graduates will choose other careers.
We are not asking for special favours. At £10,000 a year, the average teacher’s pension is no where near the £25,000 the Government has suggested.
We know only too well that the economy is in a mess. We are in a two-year pay freeze and thousands of education staff are losing their jobs. The Government has already cut the value of our pensions by an average of 15pc over our retirement by changing the yearly pension increase from RPI to CPI.
If it cuts our pensions further, we will need state benefits to make ends meet when we retire.
Despite nine months of asking, the Government has only just started to negotiate. It appears the Government sees education staff, and other public sector workers as easier targets than the City and financial sector to tap to reduce government debt. It’s not fair, it’s not right and, unless we stand up to government bullying now, young people will suffer.
Barry Lingard Bolton Branch Secretary ATL
