Dear Colleague

NUT MEMBERS TO STRIKE ON MARCH 14^th

The NUT headquarters has today written to LEAs and chairs of governors in Voluntary Aided schools to announce that NUT members will be on strike on Thursday March 14^th.

The purpose of the strike is to protest against the low level of the London Allowances and thereby to draw attention to the serious teacher shortages faced by very many schools in the London Area.

We are aware that many headteachers support our call for a significant increase in the London allowances, just as we support the NAHT and SHA in demanding funding for the above threshold spine points.

The strike call affects not only NUT members who voted in the ballot, but also any one who has joined the NUT before the day of the strike action. We are experiencing a surge of people joining the NUT.

Members of other unions, whether teachers or helpers will also be told by their unions not to take on any work normally done by an NUT member on that day – this would include play time supervision, taking registers etc.

In these circumstances many headteachers will take a professional decision to close the school for the day on health and safety grounds. The NUT would offer support to all headteachers who take this decision.

We believe that such a decision is also the best way of guaranteeing good staff relations between people taking strike action and those not taking such action on the day.

I would be very pleased to discuss any of this further with you.

Yours sincerely.