Here comes the summer of discontent: As teachers strike cripples our schools, Brown is warned of further public sector walkouts

13 April 2012

Gordon Brown was last night threatened with a wave of strikes across the public sector over the coming months.

The warning that he faces a summer of discontent came on the day that the education of 2.5million children was disrupted because of a walkout by teachers.

MPs and unions put the Prime Minister on notice for further protests over poor pay deals. It raised the prospect of children being forced to stay away from schools, bin bags going uncollected, roads not being repaired and border guards walking out.

Scroll down for more...

Massed ranks: Teachers on the march through the centre of London on a day tha some 2.5million children either had their classes disrupted or missed school altogether

Other workers considering action include prison officers, nurses and health workers. They are outraged about below-inflation pay increases at a time when many household bills are rising at their fastest rate since records began.

In the most blatant sign of a looming crisis for Number 10, teachers threatened a dramatic escalation of strike action.

Some 8,000 schools were shut yesterday as more than 200,000 angry teachers walked out over the Government's 2.45 per cent pay offer.

Thousands of working parents were forced to find emergency childcare. The teachers were joined by another 100,000 public workers, including coastguards, job centre staff, town hall workers and driving instructors.

Buoyed by the impact of yesterday's strike, leading members of the National Union of Teachers are agitating to turn the one- day walkout into a rolling programme.

Scroll down for more...

Pupil power: A boy of five shows his support for the teachers with his own placard outside a school in Brighton

They will meet in a fortnight to decide how to step up the campaign and broaden it to encompass their grievances over excessive class sizes and teacher workload, as well as poor pay.

Militants who hold sway over the union's ruling executive, are demanding more strikes as early as this summer, although ballots in September for further action are more likely.

The teachers' strike coincided with a wave of action by other public sector unions - said to be the biggest since Labour came to power.

It threatens months of unrest for the Prime Minister - seen as vulnerable by the NUT following his concessions over scrapping the 10p tax rate.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, including civil servants from ten Government departments and agencies were also involved in the one-day strike.

Half of the UK's 19 coastguard control centres were closed, 4,000 driving tests were cancelled, thousands of 'jobseekers' interviews were axed and immigration reporting centres were closed.

In Birmingham, 20,000 members of Unison - including social care workers, park wardens, teaching assistants and street cleaners - walked out over unhappiness at their pay packets.

On Sunday, oil refinery workers at Grangemouth, Scotland, will strike over pensions and the Prison Officers' Association is also "not ruling out" industrial action over pay and conditions.

The strike at the Grangemouth refinery could force the closure of a pipeline that delivers 30 per cent of the UK's daily fuel output, BP warned.

Scroll down for more...

Widespread support: Teachers from as far away as Rochdale and Manchester joined the street protest

And 150,000 nurses and local government workers represented by Unison, Unite and GMB in Scotland are threatening strike action over pay deals.

LibDem schools spokesman David Laws said: "There is a real risk of a summer of discontent both in the public sector and some parts of the private sector because of sky-rocketing inflation.

"The Government is partly to blame for this because of its 'boom bust' management of public spending and public services."

Tory frontbencher Chris Grayling blamed Mr Brown's "economic mismanagement" for the looming crisis and added: "It seems to be leaving him under pressure from all directions."

Mark Serwotka, the PCS general secretary, said below-inflation rises were an insulting pay cut for workers.

He said their average pay rise is 2 per cent - below the Government's preferred measure of inflation, the Consumer Prices Index, which is 2.5 per cent.

But the Daily Mail's Cost Of Living Index finds that food costs alone are rising at 15.5 per cent a year - more than six times the official rate.

It shows that families are having to find more than £100 a month extra this year to cope with increases in the cost of food, heat, light and transport.

Mr Serwotka said: "People are increasingly frustrated that the Government is arguing that previous public sector pay rises have caused inflation.

Scroll down for more...

London education: Protesters make their feelings known outside a school

"It does not wash when they see energy bills soaring, fuel bills soaring, food bills soaring and mortgages bills increasing. They are the victims of inflation, not the culprits."

He said the union, which has 315,000 members across 200 Government departments and agencies, would ballot members next month about stepping up strike action.

Surveys of local authorities reveal the teachers' action closed 8,000 schools or forced them to run reduced timetables.

A third of schools in England and Wales were affected, mainly in the NUT's inner-city heartlands, with 12 per cent closing altogether. Knowsley Council in Merseyside, for example, said only 14 schools out of 73 were fully open.

NUT members staged more than 50 rallies across the country and some formed picket lines outside their schools, forcing pupils to run the gauntlet of striking staff.

Scroll down for more...

Dispute: Placards called for better teacher pay

In an echo of 1970s union militancy, some teachers attempting to get to work as normal were turned back by picket lines. Teachers at City Academy in Bristol boasted they had "already turned several teachers away".

"It has been very satisfying that our message appears to be getting through," said Keith George, 45, a science teacher and NUT rep.

One member to go out on strike was Nicky Blair, the former Prime Minister's 22-year-old son, who teaches history at a West Midlands comprehensive.

Barrie Frost, a member of the NUT national executive, said a May 8 meeting would decide next steps. However, senior union sources say further action this term is unlikely because of rules surrounding ballots.

Scroll down for more...

Caution: Pickets were formed to keep a careful eye on staff who came in for work

A source said: "Teachers taking action has a big impact and every day the clock is ticking to May 2010 (the likely time of the next general election)."

The strikers were criticised by the three main political parties. Ministers say it is "not credible" to revise their pay offer in response to a strike supported by only 10 per cent of all teachers.

Mr Brown said the action was "unfortunate" and "regrettable" while Tory leader David Cameron, who revealed his disabled son Ivan was kept at home by striking teachers, warned the NUT they were damaging their reputation.

A survey by the Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations showed that only a third of parents backed the NUT's demand for a pay increase to 4.1 per cent.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in