Teachers from across Renfrewshire came together at a rally on Friday as they continued their fight for a minimum 10 per cent pay increase.
The gathering was a bid to put more pressure on the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA).
Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) union and the Association of Headteachers and Deputes in Scotland (AHDS) walked out on strike yesterday.
All primary, secondary and additional support needs (ASN) schools in Renfrewshire were closed as a result. A rally organised by the EIS was held outside Renfrewshire Council’s headquarters on Cotton Street in Paisley.
Kenny Fella, secretary of the Renfrewshire branch of the EIS, told the Paisley Daily Express that “teachers do not take strike action lightly” and that, while pay was an important issue in the dispute, the strikes are also about protecting the “profession from further decline”.
He said: “Teachers in Renfrewshire who are members of the Educational Institute of Scotland took strike action today in furtherance of their pay claim.
“It is regrettable that the Scottish Government and COSLA have not seen fit to table an improved offer that the EIS could take back to its members for consideration. Teachers do not take strike action lightly.
“They have been forced to take this action in order to protect their living standards against the threat of a real-terms pay cut and to protect the profession from further decline in its attractiveness which will ultimately impact the children and young people who deserve to be supported within our education system.”
The strikes are part of a rolling 16 consecutive days of industrial action taking place in different local authority areas which started in Glasgow and East Lothian on Monday, January 16 and culminates on Monday, February 6 in Inverclyde and Shetland.
This is in addition to planned strike dates by the EIS and the NASUWT teachers’ union on Tuesday, February 28 and Wednesday, March 1 and another rolling 20 days of strike action between Monday, March 13 and Friday, April 21.
Over the rolling strike period, each local authority area will be impacted by three consecutive days of strikes, with one day of strike action in all schools bookended on either side by one-day strikes in primary and secondary schools.
Councillor Katie Hagmann, COSLA spokesperson for resources, said earlier this month: “Strikes in education are in nobody’s interest and all parties are eager to seek a resolution that not only protects the teaching and wider local government workforce, but also our children and young people’s educational experience.
“COSLA leaders are clear that given the financial pressures being faced it remains the case that the 10 per cent ask of the trade unions remains unaffordable and, therefore, we still remain a distance apart in terms of a settlement.”
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