National Education Union (NEU) members are striking over pay in England and Wales on seven dates in February and March. National action already took place on February 1 and more planned dates over the coming weeks will impact thousands of teachers, students and parents.
The NEU is the UK's largest education union in all of Europe with more than 510,000 members and announced strikes would affect 23,400 schools in England and Wales. In a statement, Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said teachers are striking over a "toxic mix of low pay and excessive workload".
The union added that the last thing they wanted to do is strike, saying: "This is not about a pay rise but correcting historic real-terms pay cuts. Teachers have lost 23% in real-terms since 2010, and support staff 27% over the same period. The average 5% pay rise for teachers this year is some 7% behind inflation. In the midst of a cost of living crisis, that is an unsustainable situation."
