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Teachers Join Wave of Public Service Strikes as U.K. Unveils Budget [1]

['Megan Specia']

Date: 2023-03-15  

Crowded classrooms in aging buildings. Years of strain through the pandemic. And underfunding that has teachers reaching into their own pockets for glue sticks and pens, even while inflation has cut deeply into their pay. Teachers in England say they have had enough.

Hundreds of schools fully or partly closed on Wednesday, including many that curtailed their schedules as educators walked out en masse as part of a two-day strike. The police did not release their own estimate, but teacher unions said that about 40,000 people rallied in London on Wednesday, many clutching pink and orange flags that read “Pay Up.”

“Nobody wants to be doing this, nobody wants to be away from the kids, but even the children understand this,” said Ellen Yates-Malone, a 30-year-old teacher in the crowds in central London. But, she said, educators felt like they had no other choice. “We aren’t just striking over pay, it’s about so much more.”

She traveled from her home near Brighton, England, to join the teachers and their supporters rallying in London as part of the strike, the latest in a series of actions organized by teachers in Britain advocating a pay raise and better working conditions.

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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/15/world/europe/uk-teachers-strike.html

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