Teachers in England and Wales vote for strike action over pay

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Around seven million children will reportedly miss lessons on Wednesday as 500,000 workers stage the biggest strike in over a decade, a news report has claimed. An estimated 85 percent of English and Welsh state schools – up to 23,000 in all – are expected to close their doors to some or all of their pupils.

The ‘Walkout Wednesday’ will have 100,000 civil servants, 70,000 university staff and thousands of train drivers joining the teachers in staging industrial action.

Wednesday will be the first of seven national and regional NEU strike dates.

Schools have been advised to open for vulnerable pupils, key workers’ children and those taking exams.

Some will open for certain classes only.

Children may be set work to do remotely – but striking teachers are not required to do so.

The strike in general is likely to cost the economy £200million and amount to a “mini-lockdown”, with 500,000 workers in total walking off the job, reported The Daily Mail.

Downing Street said mass action would cause “significant disruption”.

The PM’s spokesman said: “It is disappointing that school leaders don’t have the clarity they need to plan appropriately.

“That would give parents the information they need about what level of care their children can expect, indeed whether they will be able to send their children to school.

“It would help reduce disruption and help teachers and school leaders better plan to provide some level of education for their students.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner accused Rishi Sunak of “weak leadership” and urged him to come to the negotiating table to sort out the “chaos”.

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She said: “The Tories are in charge, and they have not only failed to find a solution to industrial action but deliberately stoked conflict.”

Parents were in limbo because the National Education Union urged teachers to refuse to say whether they would turn up for work.

Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said ministers should be concerned because the vast majority are joining the union “because they want to be part of the action”.

He said: “That’s a very big conscious decision to make, to join us at this moment. If I was the Government, I’d be worried about that.”

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