Dear colleague

Last year, in your hundreds of thousands, you stood up for education.

Our Pay Up! strike action secured a funded 5 per cent consolidated increase in teachers’ pay and an extra 1.5% non-consolidated lump sum payment and key concessions on workload. This was on top of an award of 6.5% consolidated increase for 2022.

But when you voted to accept that offer, we said that the day could come when we would once again ask you to take action to save our schools.

Saturday 2 March 2024 – is that day.

Today we launch our preliminary electronic ballot for teachers to ask whether you would be prepared to strike to make sure educators get a fully funded, inflation-plus pay increase and that the Welsh Government and employers commit further funding to improve staffing levels in schools.

The ballot will also ask whether you would be prepared to take strike action if the Welsh Government imposes reforms the school year to cut your summer holiday to four weeks.

Education staff are still leaving the profession in droves. And there aren’t enough coming in to replace them.

On school funding, the news is no better. There is no extra money to fix the shocking state of our school estate, where water pours in through leaky ceilings, where mould and peeling paintwork are regular features of classroom walls.

In short, education needs us to step up again.

Following its December Budget Statement and the implications for the Independent Wales Pay Review Body (IWPRB), the Welsh Government is clearly gearing up for a below inflation teacher pay award for 2024. Even a paltry award would likely not be properly funded in most schools, putting education provision and school workforce jobs at risk.

This will not fix the problems with recruitment or fill all the vacancies our schools have.

Nor is now the time to change the structure of the school year. We are particularly concerned that the Welsh Government is proposing to cut the summer holidays to just four weeks. These proposals are an unnecessary distraction from the greater issues currently affecting schools in Wales.

Last year, your collective action forced the Welsh Government to put more money on the table.

As little more than a meagre pay rise is on the cards, the union stands ready to launch an indicative ballot in late February – asking you to back a further round of strike action to show the Welsh Government that we are once again prepared to stand up to save our schools.

If members vote in significant numbers, a decision will be made at national conference in April to progress to a formal ballot.

Very soon, we will also be conducting a preliminary electronic ballot of support staff members about their willingness to take strike action on pay, jobs and reform of the school year. This preliminary electronic ballot will open on Saturday, 16 March. Support staff can read more about our plans here.

In 2024, we need you to stand firm again, to demand fair pay, decent school funding and fight for the education system our pupils deserve.