ELB Offer Not Good Enough - Strike Will Continue
Classroom assistants in the Six Counties are being forced to continue their struggle for fair wages and will today (Tuesday) begin a three-day strike action.
The strike follows last week’s unanimous one-day action and rally in Belfast city centre. The latest offer by the Education and Library Boards falls well short of the mark and has left the classroom assistants with no choice but to again take action.
The long-standing dispute surrounds the conditions of pay and grading for classroom assistants, who provide an invaluable service within mainstream and special needs education. The Six County ELB have, for 12 years, refused to change the pay grading system for a classroom assistant’s working week, which sees the workers left underpaid.
For 12 years, the assistants through their trade union NIPSA have tried every method of negotiation and lobbying at their disposal to have this situation resolved and have finally, and reluctantly, come to the decision of incremental strike action, followed by an all out strike if necessary.
They are seeking full back pay and an equitable review of the grading system, which will see workers paid in accordance with the service that they provide and the hours that they work.
British direct rule ministers, the Education and Library Boards and the Six County assembly and executive have all failed to resolve the unfair labour conditions of the 7,000+ classroom assistants affected. Now, that crucial component of the educational labour force will down tools until they receive guarantees of fair pay and conditions.
Negotiations, so far, with the employers have yielded no results and led to the union rejecting the latest offer. NIPSA’s negotiator Alison Millar said:
"NIPSA’s elected representatives of Classroom Assistants unanimously rejected the employers’ offer tabled on Friday as wholly failing to address the key issues that caused this dispute. The 3 days strike action starting tomorrow must therefore go ahead as planned. We will be consulting urgently and fully with all Classroom Assistants to prepare for the all out strike from next Monday, 8 October if the employers continue to fail to address the key issues in dispute.”
NIPSA’s general secretary, John Corey insisted that the strike would continue until the workers had their demands met by the employers. He also guarded against the cynical attacks on strikers and the attempts to blame them for a situation that has been created by the employers and successive representatives of the education department.
The comments of Eamonn McCoy, a spokesperson for the British GMB trade union, on the illegitimacy of the strike were seen as divisive and unsupportive by Corey who described them as "disgraceful".
"They do a disservice to the thousands of classroom assistants who took strike action on Wednesday and gave full and unequivocal support for that," he said.
He added: "NIPSA represents over 3,000 Classroom Assistants and our members have made very clear their determination to take strike action until the employers come up with proposals that address the key issues causing the dispute. They have the full backing of NIPSA.”
Éirígí chairperson Brian Leeson said,
“Éirígí fully support the classroom assistants and see that they have no alternative but to use strike action to highlight this issue, given that in 12 years there has been little or no serious engagement by the ELB or the education department with a view to resolving this matter.”
“This is an issue which, for the benefit of children and classroom assistants alike, should have been resolved years ago and is a sad indicator of where on the ladder of importance our kids’ education, and those providing it, are held in the eyes of the power holders in question.”