Strikes in education and transport

Teachers at Connaught School, Leytonstone, east London, took strike action in late November and early December last year in a continuing battle over becoming an academy.

The school governors voted eight to six in favour of academy status, but the NUT teachers’ union is bitterly opposed to the move.

The union had already taken four days of strike action since September, with the threat of still more action to come this year.

In Doncaster, drivers working for Eddie Stobart Ltd (ESL) on a contract for Tesco took strike action on 6 December following the transfer of their work in August from Tesco to ESL.

ESL issued a 90-day notice of redundancy to all the drivers, and their union, Unite, believes the company wants to recruit new drivers on worse terms and conditions.The 180 drivers had already taken five days’ strike action in defence of their jobs.

In late November, over 2,000 north London bus drivers staged a 24-hour walkout over pay. Their employer, Arriva, has frozen pay for two years and proposes to continue the pay freeze into a third year. The dispute covers nine garages.

And members of the RMT transport union took strike action at seven transport cleaning contracts, all operated by ISS.

The strikes, for varying periods over four days in late November and early December, were over low pay and involved up to 1,000 cleaners on various rail lines.