Teachers and lecturers strike across Dorset over pay and conditions

Pickets by the University and College Union (UCU) and the National Education Union (NEU) had strong support from passers-by for their campaign seeking pay rises to match inflation.

Teachers at Poole High School said that they were striking to get a pay rise that would not come out of their school’s budget.

Lucy Ryall, a teacher at the school, said: “The government are turning around and saying that you can have five per cent, but then they’re turning to headteachers and saying you can find that in their budget.

“That funding is having a direct impact on our kids. We can’t afford the resources we need at school.”

Fellow teacher Steve Excell said that the support from the public and the school community had been “overwhelming”.

“The students have come up and dropped off boxes of sweets for us, thumbs up as they go past. It’s been really positive,” he said.

Ian McCann, senior regional officer for NEU, said teachers are out on strike “with a heavy heart”.

“They don’t want to be out on strike, they want to be in the classroom supporting the young people that they support on a daily basis,” he said.

“But they’re forced to do it, their pay has been depleted by 23 per cent over the last 10 to 12 years, and that can’t carry on.”

Outside Arts University Bournemouth’s campus, members of the UCU said staff were burning out from overworking and workload that they are not paid for.

Emma Lay, branch chair of the AUB UCU, said that they have had some offers, but it was not enough.

“The most recent pay offer would equate to us working for basically two months for free, it’s just not good enough," she said. 

Branch secretary for AUB UCU, Ian Dolan, said that staff are struggling with short-term and hourly contracts, and pay gaps between different groups that they are striking to address.

“We are exhausted, we are broken, we are on our knees,” he said.

“We absolutely do not want to be out on strike. It hurts us quite a lot to be doing this, we know how disruptive this is for our students. We care deeply about our students.

“We have to win, otherwise the sector will collapse. Universities are spending money on vanity projects, buildings.

“They should be spending it on staff that are broken.”

Education secretary Gillian Keegan has said the the country could not afford above-inflation pay awards.

“What is not realistic is for us to be looking at inflation or inflation-busting pay rises. We cannot risk fuelling inflation with inflation-busting pay rises. We have to look after everybody in the economy,” she said.