Three more days of strike action underway at Mansfield school
Teachers and support staff at Mansfield’s Samworth Church Academy have begun three additional days of strike action over the issues of workload, unreasonable management practices and a failure to establish effective industrial relations and negotiating structures.
Strike action has escalated as management at the Academy Trust have decided to take a much more aggressive approach towards their staff and have informed them that they intend to ship in staff from across the Trust in a desperate attempt to break the well supported strike.
Staff at the school on Sherwood Hall Road, Mansfield, have been joining the National Education Union (NEU) in numbers and the NEU now represents more than 60 teachers and support staff at the academy.
The union has been raising issues around workload and unreasonable management practices for some time but the Trust that runs Samworth refuses to acknowledge that there are serious problems at the crisis hit school and negotiate with the staff.
Staff also believe that changes are being imposed on them unilaterally by management in a manner that is insulting and counter-productive.
Staff at the school are overwhelmingly of the believe that the challenges facing the school can only be met with a collaborative approach from the school’s management that is yet to materialise.
Given the continued crisis at the school, staff believe that they have been left with no choice other than to take further strike action as management at the Trust will not engage with them and have decided to escalate matters by shipping in strike breakers.
Strike action started today (Tuesday) and will continue tomorrow (Wednesday,) and Thursday, February 26.
Gareth Jones, regional officer, National Education Union, East Midlands Region said: “This is a worrying escalation and attack on staff at Samworth Church Academy. Rather than listen to their staff, management at the Trust have decided to take the deeply divisive step of shipping in strike breakers to undermine their staff.
“This is an ill-considered, irresponsible and needlessly aggressive escalation from an employer that seems to want to alienate its workforce further using tactics that will have a horrible historic resonance for the community we serve that remembers the bitterness and division such tactics can cause in an industrial dispute.
“Our members believe that such an escalation is not only deeply unhelpful but also at odds with the Christian ethos of the school.
“The National Education Union and its members care passionately about the students at the school land the community they serve.
“We urge the Trust to end their attacks on educators and meet with the union in an attempt to end this dispute.”
There will be a picket outside of the school at 7.30am on all strike days.
A Samworth Academy spokesperson: said: “The academy will remain open to all students, with the sole aim of keeping disruption of learning to a minimum, particularly for exam groups in year 11 and 13.
"Our approach remains consistent with maintaining a safe environment for students while respecting the rights of staff participating in strike action.”