Luton teachers set to strike for two days as part of ongoing pay dispute

Teacher across Luton and Bedfordshire are set to join two 24-hour strikes in a dispute over pay in the next week.

Teaching staff will walk about of classrooms across the county tomorrow (April 27) and on Tuesday, May 2, with a rally held in Dunstable’s Grove Gardens tomorrow between 11am and 12.30pm.

Emma Brady, district and branch secretary of the National Education Union in Central Bedfordshire said that ‘enough was enough’ as school budgets are cut. She said: “Teachers across Central Bedfordshire are seeing prices of everyday goods soar whilst their pay is being held back. This is on the back of 13 years of below inflation pay awards, Teachers are struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living.”

The union staged strikes in February and March to pressure the government to raise wages.

David Mingay, national executive member for the union believes this ongoing industrial action could be ended by Secretary of State for Education, Gilligan Keegan, but the government are choosing not to.

David said: "The government has had every opportunity to engage in further negotiations on pay and put forward and sensible offer on pay to solve this dispute. Instead, they have now refused the offer of further negotiations and are hiding behind a pay review body whose independence is questionable at best.”

The union says it has made sure the strikes do not affect the students’ GSCE and A Levels, but reiterated that “education is being disrupted daily by chronic teacher shortages and funding cuts”.