"Wages Lag Behind Inflation"… UK Teachers Join Public Sector Strike

Public Sector Workers' Wage Increase Protest in the UK
[Image Source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] In the UK, as public sector workers have been joining strikes one after another demanding wage increases, teachers have now joined the strike.

The National Education Union (NEU) announced on the 16th (local time) that more than half of the 300,000 eligible members in England and Wales participated in the strike ballot, and among them, 90% expressed their intention to join the strike, according to major foreign media including the BBC.

The NEU plans to carry out seven days of strikes between February and March, with nationwide strikes scheduled for February 1 and March 15-16. Scottish teachers have already begun sequential strikes starting from the 16th. However, the NEU intends to ensure that no school closes for more than four days.

The reason UK teachers are striking is that the wage increase rates proposed by the government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) do not keep up with inflation. The government has proposed a 5% wage increase and a 6.85% increase for minimum wage workers, but the NEU demands a 10% wage increase to match the inflation rate. As of November last year, the UK's consumer price inflation rate reached 10.7%.

However, the government maintains that it cannot accept all the wage increase demands proposed by the teachers' unions. They argue that a large wage increase would worsen government finances and exacerbate inflation issues. Earlier, Nicola Sturgeon, head of the Scottish Government, rejected the Scottish teachers' wage increase demands, stating, "Like healthcare services, our budget is limited, and the UK government has no way to increase available resources this year."

The Education Secretary plans to engage in talks with union leaders later this week to try to resolve the strike.

Meanwhile, since last year, 1.5 million public sector workers in the UK, including those in railways and healthcare, have been participating in strikes demanding wage increases. On the 15th, for the first time in the 106-year history of the union, UK nurses voted to strike.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.