strike over pay

More than 40 schools across the city of Brighton and Hove were closed on Thursday and Friday as an estimated 700 teaching assistants from the Unison and GMB unions took part in a 48-hour strike over low pay. Refuse workers from the GMB threatened wildcat strikes in solidarity.

In the first-ever strike by teaching assistants, 700 people (according to police estimates) marched through the city, before returning to lobby a council meeting in the afternoon where the council was busy awarding itself £800k in bonuses and expenses. The council had claimed it would cost £700k to meet the pay claim.

Denise, a teaching assistant for ten years, explained that seven years' of negotiations about re-grading teaching assistants had concluded with Brighton and Hove City Council announcing that the mostly female, middle-aged workforce would only be paid for 44 weeks out of the year in future. They can no longer claim benefits during holiday periods, either. This would make any pay increase through regarding virtually non-existent, leaving annual average take-home earnings of just £9k. 'This is no longer a Labour Council - those no longer exist,' Denise said.

Support amongst parents has been very strong, despite a letter to parents from David Hawker, the council's Director of Schools. The letter was distributed to children in schools, and tried to pass the dispute off as the work of union officials.

Denis, 55, said 'I have a ten-year-old daughter and it's disgusting the council can't give them [teaching assistants] the money they deserve for what is very important work.'' He added ''I've had to wait four-and-a-half years for an operation. I've been a Labour voter all my life, but never again.
Without teaching assistants all the schools would close. He said that he was willing to take time off to care for his daughter if it was to support teaching assistants.

Marcus Boal, 30, asked 'Why are we treated differently from teachers who work the same hours?' Council leader Ken Bodfish's reply was to claim that TAs are paid less as they are not qualified. TAs, who, it was pointed out, have not only qualifications but also years of experience, greeted Mr Bodfish with angry jeers when he arrived for the council meeting in the afternoon.

Both Dave Prentis, who addressed TAs on Monday 22nd, and his GMB counterpart, Kevin Curran, who addressed a rally of 400 TAs on Friday, pledged their full support for continued strike action, with UNISON South-East Region committing £10k in hardship funds. Solidarity greetings were received from a conference of TAs in Birmingham, and NUT branches as far afield as Leeds.

Messages of support flooded in to Brighton from unionists around the country. More strike action is planned, and other union members are threatening wildcat strikes to support the Brighton and Hove teaching assistants.