UP TO 1,000 school support staff from Merton to Greenwich and Woolwich rallied outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday chanting ‘London Weighting Needs Inflating’.
They are demanding the same Inner London Weighting as the teachers they work alongside, worth up to £1,400 a year.
The GMB members, including teaching assistants, special needs assistants and administrative staff from 28 schools in Merton and others in Greenwich, were on their second day of strike action.
The first was on 1 May. After the rally in Old Palace Yard they marched on the Department for Education.
Teachers in their schools all receive Inner London Weighting, but support staff have for years been paid only the lower Outer London rate.
Kim Marshall from Merton, who leads the strike, said: ‘Today is our second day of action and we have come to the doorstep of Parliament. We are tired of being ignored.
‘We open the gates in the morning, we support the children throughout the day, we clean the classrooms, and if we are not there, everyone would notice. But when we are there nobody notices.
‘When a child is struggling, when a child is hungry, distressed, overwhelmed or simply needs someone to believe in them, we are there.’
Support staff had become ‘the glue holding the schools together’, she said. ‘When budgets are cut, we are expected to pick up the slack. When services disappear we are expected to fill in the gaps.
‘Every year our workload grows, every year our responsibilities grow. But year after year support staff are expected to accept less. Less recognition, less respect, less reward and frankly we have had enough!’
Tina McCarthy, from Cherry Orchard Primary School in Charlton, said: ‘We all have the same bills, we all live in London and work in London in the same buildings, so why aren’t we given our dues? We have fought it for over 10 years, and now the schools are suffering because we have had to strike.’
More schools had joined since May, she said. ‘We are hoping the DfE will see sense and meet our demands.’
Nadine Houghton, GMB Regional Secretary for the Southern Region, hailed the union’s branch representatives as ‘absolute giants of the Labour movement’.
‘Despite everything you do to keep schools running day after day, to care for our children, you are being treated as though your work is worthless,’ she told the crowd. ‘We are here in Westminster to tell the government, “Enough is enough!”
‘So far Lucy Powell, the Labour Education Secretary, has ignored your calls,’ she said, to boos. ‘GMB is a Labour-affiliated union but we will not allow politicians of any colour to ignore the legitimate demands of our members.
‘We are not here to win this one dispute. The GMB is here to build a movement of organised school staff with the strength to fight and win for themselves. The power to change things doesn’t just lie in Westminster alone. It lies in your workplaces and in the strength of working people standing together.’
