With the upcoming teaching unions’ strikes, is Michael Gove battling the teachers? Just days after the new school term has begun, the unions have announced the dates of the strikes — including one in the middle of the Tory conference — while blaming the Education Secretary for not listening to the concerns of their members.
As Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said on the World at One today:
‘With pay, pensions and working conditions being systematically attacked and an education secretary who refuses to listen or negotiate teachers now have no other choice’
Gove has hit back in a Policy Exchange speech, accusing of unions of choosing politics over pupils. If you look closely at what he had to say, the language was carefully targeted to blame the union leaderships, not their striking members:
‘I fear the reason for this strike is there are people in the leadership of the teaching unions who are on, for ideological reasons or whatever, some sort of kick.
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