The NEU teaching union is set to discuss further strikes during the summer term at a meeting later this month, Tes can reveal.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, told Tes that the union was not “rushing” towards more industrial action, as it wants a settlement to the pay dispute, but said that further strikes “could well” be needed.
Mr Courtney was speaking to Tes at a school picket line in Cambridge this morning, on the second of three consecutive days of regional strike action by NEU members. He said the government was not negotiating in a “serious way” by telling the union to postpone strikes before it would reveal the details of a pay offer.
Asked if further strikes in the summer term could follow if this situation continued, Mr Courtney said: “Yes, there could well be more dates in the summer term.
“We will be thinking about those at our executive [meeting] on 25 March in order that we can give notice for those strike days. We’re not rushing towards that, because we want to find a settlement to the dispute. We want the government to put some money in and invest in this generation of children.”
Threat of more teacher strikes in the summer
He added that any strikes in the summer term would not be on days when exams were due to take place.
The NEU had previously indicated that further walkouts could be on the cards, though it had not previously suggested that these could go into the summer term, when many students sit exams.
The final proposed day of industrial action is currently Thursday 16 March.
Last week education secretary Gillian Keegan wrote to education unions inviting them to ”build on the constructive discussions that have already taken place and move into formal talks on pay, conditions and reform”.
However, a Department for Education spokesperson said at the time: “A condition of these talks will be that the National Education Union calls off next week’s strike action.”
This offer was not taken up, with Mr Courtney saying that “nothing substantial” in the letter suggested the NEU should call off the strikes.
Unions can continue strike action for up to six months without seeking another mandate from members, so the NEU would not need to reballot members to call further days of action.
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