School teachers, further education college and post-92 university lecturers in London are taking part in a one-day strike and demonstration today as the next step in their pensions campaign.
The National Union of Teachers said: ‘Strike action on March 28th is for NUT members in the following areas: Barking & Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley Teachers Association, Brent, Bromley, Camden, Croydon, Ealing, East London, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth and Westminster.’
The union has called on all NUT members in London, to join the central London demonstration, assembling at 11am in Malet Street, London WC1, marching to Westminster and ending up at the Department for Education at SW1.
The NUT said: ‘We welcome the decision of the University and College Union (UCU) to do the same.’
NUT general secretary Christine Blower said: ‘The government is well aware that teachers do not accept the changes that they propose to make to our pensions.
‘The vast majority of teaching unions have not signed up to the latest pension proposals which still mean that teachers will have to pay much more, work much longer and get much less in retirement.
‘The NUT believes it is essential that the teaching profession stands united on this issue.
‘Working and taking action together in June and November 2011 brought some concessions from Government, but they do not go far enough.
‘We have no evidence whatsoever that teachers’ pensions are unaffordable.
‘The government has consistently refused to carry out the long overdue valuation of the scheme, and the Hutton Report showed that the costs of public sector pensions are falling.
‘Teachers cannot be expected to just accept Government proposals to cut pensions without a justifiable reason.
‘We will be writing to the other teaching unions to look at the ways we can work together to defend the profession and our pensions, and will be discussing how to take the campaign forward at the NUT Annual Conference this Easter.’
The University and College Union (UCU) has confirmed that its members in further education colleges and post-92 universities in London will join with members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT) for today’s one day strike.
The strike is in protest against changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS), which UCU says will see greater contributions from pension scheme members in exchange for reduced benefits.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘Educators do not like taking strike action. Our chosen vocation is to change lives and transform life chances and we are unlikely militants.
‘However, it is not fair for ordinary people to suffer huge cuts in their standards of living for a crisis they did not create.’
The UCU said it was meeting with other unions to talk about further action in the coming weeks.
On March 16, the UCU NEC agreed that the union’s London TPS members would take action alongside colleagues from NUT today.
It was also agreed to defer a decision about action elsewhere in the country until the PCS union’s Executive had met.
In the event, the PCS decided not to take strike action in the UK today.
The UCU NEC has asked branches not taking action to nonetheless hold lunchtime or similar events in support of the dispute on pensions today.
Teachers’ union NASUWT is taking national action short of strike action after its National Executive unanimously rejected the government’s ‘Final Agreement’ on changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme for England and Wales, to be introduced in 2015.
NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said: ‘The government’s ideological intransigence, game playing, prevarication, provocative actions at key points in the process and refusal to engage in genuine negotiations are wholly to blame for this decision.
‘The government has wilfully refused, throughout months of discussions, to provide a valuation of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme and has failed to provide one shred of evidence to support its view that the pensions of teachers are unaffordable or unsustainable.
‘The proposed Final Agreement will be bad for teachers, bad for children and young people and bad for taxpayers. It represents a major worsening of the terms and conditions of service of teachers and headteachers.’
Keates added: ‘The proposed Final Agreement is potentially unlawful and discriminatory, particularly for part-time and disabled teachers.
‘Teachers’ pay has been cut. Jobs have been lost. Workload and accountability have soared, while morale and motivation have plummeted. This is a dangerous cocktail.
‘The NASUWT will continue its action short of strike action, which has been in place since November 30 following an overwhelmingly successful ballot in furtherance of the Union’s trade dispute with the government over pensions and conditions of service, including pay, jobs and workload.’
She concluded: ‘The NASUWT Annual Conference at the beginning of April will determine the next phase in the Union’s industrial action strategy.’
l Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Mark Serwotka said on Budget Day last week: ‘We are now urgently talking to people in other unions to try and move to national co-ordinated strike action as part of a very big campaign to stop the cuts on the income of public sector workers and to start getting people to be respected for the important work that they do.
‘PCS is organising the biggest possible campaign of industrial action with other public sector workers.
‘We now need to step up the campaign. That is why we are working to organise the biggest possible joint action and want every PCS member to lobby their MP.
‘Every union member has the chance to lobby their member of parliament – while they are at home in their constituencies for the Easter break.
‘Tell them we do not accept the pension changes and want meaningful negotiations.
‘Between March 27 and April 16 PCS will be organising lobbies of MPs surgeries across the UK.’
Meanwhile, PCS members who work for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Merseyside will be on strike on Friday, March 30. The action will hit 29 jobcentres and two call centres.
The dispute is about the transfer of about 100 admin staff from local jobcentres to centralised call centres.
Union members are concerned that local centres won’t be able to cope with the waves of unemployed people expected because of government cuts. In Liverpool 62 per cent of jobs are in the public sector.
The strike covers the whole of Merseyside county, and bits of Cheshire around Runcorn. The walkout will last from 2.00pm to 5.00pm and follows a three hour strike on Monday morning, March 5th.