NUT: Teachers and lecturers in capital pension strike
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) and National Union of Teachers (NUT) at schools, colleges and universities across London will tomorrow (Wednesday) take strike action in protest against changes to their pensions.
Union members are opposing Government plans to make teachers and lecturers pay more and work longer for their pensions and get less in retirement. Next week sees the first stage of a 50 per cent increase in their pension contributions, despite the evidence that the cost of their pensions is falling following changes already made in 2007.
UCU and NUT members will march through central London, with protestors due to assemble outside Malet Street from 11am and set off at 11:45am. Speakers at the pre-march rally at Malet Street include writer, political commentator and activist Owen Jones.
Marchers will then make their way through Bloomsbury, down Shaftesbury Avenue, along Charing Cross Road, down Whitehall and across Parliament Square to the Department for Education (DfE). At approximately 1pm there will be a rally outside the DfE where there will be speeches from UCU and NUT members and the children’s laureate Michael Rosen.
The Twitter hashtag for the strike is #m28. A map of the route can be found here http://tinyurl.com/79zfffr
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: “UCU members are unlikely militants and would much rather be doing their jobs then taking strike action and losing a day’s pay. However, it is not fair for ordinary people to suffer huge cuts in their standards of living at a time when the Government is handing out huge tax giveaways to big business and high earners.”
NUT General Secretary, Christine Blower, said: “Teachers cannot be expected to do anything other than defend the right to a pension which they have paid into in good faith and which the Government has shown no evidence that they are either unsustainable or unaffordable. No teacher wants to be in this position. Pension increases are just an extra tax on teachers, when the top rate of tax is being cut. It is the Government’s intransigence and total disregard of the facts that has forced teachers to continue with this action.”
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Contacts:
NUT – Caroline Cowie t: 020 7380 4707; m: 07879 480 061; e: c.cowie@nut.org.uk
UCU – Dan Ashley m: 07789 518 992; e: dashley@ucu.org.uk and Alex Rossiter m: 07977 562 686; e: arossiter@ucu.org.uk
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