NORTHERN IRELAND

School principal appeals to politicians ahead of strike action

‘Stop using us as a political football to get back to work’


Liam McGuckin, NAHT President and principal of Greenisland Primary School
Amy CochraneToday at 06:00

A school principal has called on politicians to stop using him and other public servants “as political footballs” to force Northern Ireland’s politicians back into government.

Liam McGuckin was speaking ahead of the planned strike action taking place in the coming days as part of a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of five of Northern Ireland’s teaching unions will strike for 12 hours from midnight on November 29.

The Northern Ireland Teachers' Council (NITC), comprising the five recognised trade unions, said members would also strike for four full days next spring on dates to be agreed.

Teachers, along with other public sector workers here, have been involved in industrial action in recent months amid ongoing disputes about wages and conditions.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Politics, Mr McGuckin, principal at Greenisland Primary School and president of the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said that a teacher working in his school came across his mothers’ pay cheque from 10 years ago - when she retired - and discovered that she was in the same salary band as he is today.

“The salaries are at a standstill here but inflation has rocketed,” he said.

“What we are left with is people earning substantially more money in Wales, Scotland and England, or young people can go to the Far East and earn tax-free sums which they’re doing.”

He added that teachers are also now just leaving the profession altogether.

“Years ago in Northern Ireland there just wasn’t the job opportunities, now we have, but people get their degree, have a huge debt and have to pay that off so they’re leaving the profession,” he said.

When asked what impact the strike action will have, Mr McGuckin said that “they have to do something” – even if it is a final resort.

“The last thing teachers and head teachers want to do is take strike action and close schools, and the fact we have only done this twice in 126 years makes the point on that,” he said.

“But we have to do something, we have not been given a pay rise, our colleagues in England and Wales have, and we have to take it straight to the Prime Minister, so that is what we are going to do.

“The Secretary of State is doing nothing on this, and we are stuck in a situation, so we will be handing a letter to the Prime Minister at Downing Street signed by 500 or 600 school principals demanding a change of pay.”

Mr McGuckin spoke of his anger at the situation.

He added: “We are being used as a political football and it’s not fair on public servants - whether it be nurses, doctors, nurses, bus drivers, train drivers - to be used as a political football to force politicians in Northern Ireland back into government.

“We have to think of the future of children in schools and as Tony Blair said, ‘education, education, education’.

“Education gives hope and aspiration, education brings jobs and education brings stability to Northern Ireland, so it’s incumbent on politicians in our country to get that stability, to get those jobs and get better schools and better school buildings.”