Teachers strike across Sussex

Richard Gurner, Jonathan Stayton and Sam Underwood report on the latest wave of strikes to hit the county.

Children across Sussex had the day off school yesterday when teachers went on strike.

Protest rallies took place in Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne in a day of wide-spread industrial action that included coastguards, driving test examiners, job centre workers and other civil servants.

More than 160 schools in the county cancelled classes, with 97 schools, including 15 secondaries, closed completely in the first national teachers' strike in 21 years.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is demanding a 4.1% pay increase rather than the below inflation 2.45% on offer.

It has argued the deal would amount to a pay cut once inflation had been taken into account.

In Brighton, the day started early for lecturers on the picket line at City College Brighton and Hove's Pelham Tower in Pelham Street, with up to 80 lecturers on strike.

National president of the University and College Union (UCU) Linda Newman joined members before heading to the London rally.

She said: "I'm here to support my colleagues in the UCU who are taking strike action today largely over pay but also pay-related conditions.

The main issue is my colleagues here are lecturers and yet they earn on average 15% below the pay of school teachers."

Despite the rain, lecturers then joined their teaching colleagues from city schools at the Pavilion Gardens to march to the Old Ship Hotel on Brighton seafront.

A sea of umbrellas and placards surged up North Street and then down West Street to shouts of "fair pay" as car horns were sounded in support.

Claire White, a 28-year-old teacher from Hangleton Junior School, Hove, said: "We had a big decision in our school. We felt the worklife balance and the money we are getting doesn't reflect how hard we work.

"We are not in the job for the money but when it comes to inflation and fairness, it's about time we took a stand. Especially in Brighton there are a lot of young teachers that cannot afford mortgages. When we are working hours after school and we cannot afford a mortgage. It's not really fair."

Libby Danahar, 45, has been a teacher for 11 years and has spent eight at Dorothy Stringer School in Brighton.

She said: "They say the average pay for a teacher is £34,000 but I am not on that. At what point do we reach the average wage?

"I've got colleagues in their early 20s paying off student debts. Some of them are thinking about going abroad.

"If you want good teachers, you have got to pay them a decent and fair wage."

At the end of the march the teachers filed into the Old Ship Hotel to listen to union officials address them.

Ron Gordon, the president of the Brighton and Hove branch of the NUT, told a packed hotel hall of about 250: "It's not about greed, it's about self respect. I don't want to be paid like a city executive, I don't want to be paid like a premier footballer, I don't even want to be paid like my GP. I simply want to be paid like I was in 2004. I'm fed up with de facto pay cuts, I don't want to be locked into them for another three years. It's about time I registered my disapproval.

"I've heard it said we've been offered an above inflation pay rise. But the Government has two measures of inflation, a made up one that excludes items such as the council tax and fuel bills that it uses to determine public sector pay and another one that's used to calculate the repayments of student loans.

"Such cynicism of public servants is not worthy of any government, especially a Labour government."

In the west of the county 200 teachers braved the wind and rain to gather outside Worthing Pavilion on the seafront.

Dave Thomas, secretary of the NUT's West Sussex branch, said he was pleased with the turnout and defended the strike action.

He said: "We are concerned we are being given a three-year pay deal where the increase is less than the rate of inflation. One of the issues of particular concern is the plight of younger teachers who are really struggling financially.

"The starting salary for a teacher is about £3,000 below the average graduate salary.

"Many teachers do work during their holidays and most evenings are taken up with school work. That would not be so bad if the Government recognised their contribution by giving a reasonable pay settlement which was at least above the rate of inflation."

Des McDonald, an English teacher at Littlehampton Community School, said: "The main point is that the pay award is below the rate of inflation. Teachers in the South East are particularly badly affected because house prices and living costs are much higher here."

Jo Hutchinson from the Angmering School said: "I'm here because I'm struggling to make ends meet. I've left university with loan debts of more than £20,000 and I'm still paying them off to the Government.

"Teachers' pay does not reflect the hard work we do and our day-to-day dedication. We want fairer pay and more respect."

In Eastbourne about 120 teachers, lecturers and civil servants also braved the weather, protesting on the seafront before holding a rally in the Cavendish Hotel.

Divisional secretary of the East Sussex NUT Dave Brinson said: "The support people have shown has been fantastic and we should all be proud. As teachers we are angry. We have had three years where our pay has risen less than inflation and we have got three more years where it will not rise by inflation again. This is pay cuts year-on-year, potentially for six years."

Rachael Beckett has been working in her first job, teaching reception class children at Cradle Hill Primary School in Seaford, for three years. During her career at university and at teacher training college she accrued a student loan debt of £15,000. In three years she has paid off just £600.

The 25-year-old now earns £23,000 and lives in a flat in Seaford, having found the commute from Hove too costly and too time consuming after a long day in the classroom.

She said: "My mortgage payments are going up all the time but wages are not going up anywhere near as much. Next year it will be a real struggle for me to keep up with payments.

"We're not getting the money we deserve. If pay cuts continue it will drive down standards in education despite our best efforts."

French national Emeline Galibert has also recently qualified and teaches French at Tideway School in Newhaven.

She said: "All I earn is £900 a month so I have had to claim housing benefit. I do three days a week and have to supplement that with private lessons and doing cover work wherever I can."

Seaford Primary School teacher Deborah Slot said: "We are here because consistently over the last three years wages have been driven down. I know one younger teacher, who, with his partner who was also a new teacher, couldn't even afford a two-bedroom flat."

As well as teachers, driving test examiners and other civil servants went on strike yesterday over pay.

Thirty striking staff closed the DVLA offices in Brighton's Trafalgar Place.

Steve Banfield, the Public and Commercial Services union representative at the DVLA in Brighton, said: "We are here today because of below-inflation pay rises over the next three years.

"The DVLA is the lowest paid in the civil service as it is. We have been in dispute for more than a year now and this is the fifth strike we've had. It is good the teachers are getting on board.

Things are really kicking off."

Driving Standards Agency staff were also on strike over pay.

Maxine Barnett, a student driver, was upset when she arrived to take her driving test at the Burwash Road test centre, Hove, only to find staff were on strike.

Her grandmother, Brighton and Hove city councillor, Dawn Barnett, said: "I think it's disgusting.

They didn't ring her to warn her they were striking.

And they have all the students' numbers."

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