NEU members at Flint High School have today taken their second of three days of strike action this week. Members were on strike Tuesday 23 Wednesday 24 and will be on Thursday 25 September due to the employer’s continuing failure to deal with bullying behaviour from the Headteacher and the inability of the school's leadership to tackle high levels of behavioural issues.
NEU members offered to postpone the first day of action for this week, if the local authority agreed to a meeting with all members, so that they could hear directly the issues they are facing. The offer was rejected, with a counteroffer that they would meet with NEU officials and the workplace representative only. Members did not feel that this was a significant enough gesture to postpone action.
Nicola Fitzpatrick, Wales Secretary for the National Education Union Cymru, said:
”We recognise that some positive support from the Local Authority has been offered in relation to pupil behaviour. However, we have yet to have any movement from the governing body in relation to the conduct of the Headteacher.
“Strike action on a single school basis by the NEU in North Wales is unprecedented. The overwhelming public support we have has shown that people understand that when education workers - who have given their lives to children and young people – go on strike, something is seriously wrong.
Nicola Fitzatrick added: “We do not have any strike dates planned for the next two weeks. We would urge the governing body to take up our offer to meet with all members on the 6th of October to allow us to speak directly about our concerns. We know that governors have been sent an anti-NEU presentation, surely they should now want to hear from the NEU at Flint High”.
Liz McLean, NEU Executive Member for Wales, said: “We would have expected some humility from the school leadership. What we’ve had is a threatening letter from a legal firm, inflammatory messages and presentations to staff, and now agency workers are being brought in to cover striking workers. These tactics will not work, our members will stand together and they will not tolerate any threats to their own or their pupils’ health, safety and wellbeing”