Should teachers strike during an education crisis?

Recording of the Academy of Ideas Education Forum discussion at Accent Study Centre, London on 28 February 2023

INTRODUCTION
Following the recent announcement of industrial action by teachers, a Spectator column asked ‘Should teachers really go on strike?’. It argued that teachers are not nearly as enthusiastic about strike action as union leaders claim. While 53% of NEU members in England voted in the ballot, less than 50% of NASUWT members did, meaning the NASUWT ballot failed to meet the legal threshold to strike.

So how widespread is support for the strikes among educators and public, and does public support matter? Some who have traditionally supported the right to strike argue that now is not the time, and that closing schools so soon after the Covid lockdowns, which disrupted education for months and continue to have knock-on effects, is irresponsible.

How do we balance the idea of vocation and public service with the right of teachers to a decent wage and conditions? Would striking during GCSE and A-Level exams, for example, be unacceptable disruption or is causing disruption necessary if workers want to stand up for their rights?

Is a 12% pay claim “fantastical” as government claim or, in a context of more than a decade of longer hours, high inflation and real terms pay cuts, utterly deserved and necessary? With the government’s anti-strike bill moving closer to law, are restrictions on the right of teachers to withdraw their labour justified by the circumstances or do they represent an opportunistic attack on civil liberties?

Join us for this roundtable discussion as we bring together teachers for and against the strike and those undecided, as we explore what it means to be a teacher today.

SPEAKERS
Conor McCrory
secondary school science teacher, union rep and examiner

Gareth Sturdy
former teacher and union organiser, including a stint as branch president, now writing on the intersection of schools and politics

Gregor Claude
art teacher and former lecturer in cultural theory

CHAIR
Kevin Rooney
teacher and convenor of Academy of Ideas Education Forum