Teachers in sixth-form colleges voted overwhelmingly to take strike action for pay justice, reports John Westmoreland

When Labour gave teachers the 5.5% recommended by the School Teachers’ Review Body, it was clear that this was a tactic to avoid a fight they would struggle to win, and to use this ‘generosity’ to get the unions onside as Labour sets out a cuts programme spun as ‘tough decisions’.

However, giving workers pay justice was not the government’s intention as the case of teachers at 32 sixth-form colleges shows. Pay for teachers in sixth-form colleges has never been under the remit of the STRB. Negotiations over pay have always been settled by teachers’ unions through national arbitration. However, in a move that can only be explained as an attempt to weaken national bargaining, Labour has given the 33 academised sixth forms sufficient funding to cover the 5.5% award but has withheld it from the 32 colleges that are not academies.

The NEU has written to Bridget Phillipson to demand clarification, protesting that unless pay equality is upheld, national bargaining will be undermined, resulting in a two-tier workforce.

Why is the government being so petty? First of all, it shows that the government favours the academy business model. Second, it is political posturing designed to show that Labour is not beholden to the trade unions. And third, it fits with the government’s agenda of penny-pinching from our public services.

Teachers at the affected sixth forms have voted overwhelmingly to strike. The first day of action on 28 November was well supported with pickets outside colleges across the country, while ‘hordes of teachers’ marched on the Department of Education. The mood was angry with chants of ‘Pay cut, no thanks, take the money from the banks,’ and, ‘Money for health and education, not for war and deportation’.

More strikes are promised.

From this month’s Counterfire freesheet