THE NATIONAL Education Union (NEU) will be picketing outside two Solihull schools as part of a new wave of teacher strikes across the region.
NEU pickets will take place from 7.30am on Friday July, 7 at Archbishop ilsley Catholic School in Acocks Green and John Henry Newman school in Fordbridge.
The union are aiming to force a pay increase for teachers above inflation after turning down a 4.5 per cent pay increase and a £1,000 one off payment in April.
The School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB), which makes recommendations to the government on pay, professional duties and working time for school teachers in England has recommended a 6.5 percent pay rise for teachers.
The NEU believes STRB recommendations made to the secretary of state for education, Gillian Keegan will be ignored.
A third of teachers have left the sector within five years of qualifying according the governments latest census and teacher vacancies are up by 55 percent in the last 12 months.
The NEU have confirmed their members are currently voting on whether to extend the campaign of industrial action into the autumn with other unions including ASCL, NAHT and NASUWT doing the same.
Pauline Browne, West Midlands regional secretary of the National Education Union, said: “It is with great reluctance that our members are taking further strike action, but teachers have been left with no choice.
“In stark contrast to Wales and Scotland, where settlements were reached months ago, the Government of England is intent on dragging its heels.
“Gillian Keegan has refused to engage and refused to meet with the education unions, in spite of the vast majority of teachers rejecting her initial pay and funding offer at the start of April.
“We want to find a solution but it seems the Government is more interested in political games.”
