Four teaching unions plan further Northern Ireland strike action

Four unions representing the majority of teachers and school leaders in Northern Ireland are taking half day strike action on 21 February.

NASUWT, INTO, UTU and NEU are all calling for a fully funded pay increase of 12 percent for 2022-23.

Health Unions in Northern Ireland will also take to the picket lines over pay and working conditions on the same day.

The action was scheduled to take place today however, the change has been made to coincide with industrial action by teachers.

Justin McCamphill NASUWT National Official said teachers had been left with no choice but to take strike action as a result of the failure of education employers to offer any improvement on a two year pay proposal last February.

Gerry Murphy, INTO Northern Secretary said: "Teachers have been backed into a corner by an absent government at Stormont and a series of incompetent ones at Westminster.

"Like workers across the public and private sectors they are the victims of a decade of wage stagnation resulting in a decline in their living standards.

"This strike signals that they are no longer prepared to endure falling living standards and ever-increasing workloads". Jacquie White, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers Union (UTU) said teachers could not make the urgency of the situation any clearer.

She described the "unprecedented move" as a "reflection of the strength of feeling of our members in the face of derisory offers made to date".

Mark Langhammer, Regional Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) said: "The money is there, we just need the right political priorities.

"The Government claims there is no money, that budgets are tight, that we’re being unrealistic. That’s untrue. It’s a matter of political choices".

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