'We're not asking for more money, we just want what we signed up for' - Stafford academy teaching assistants mark 100 days of strike action over 'fire and re-hire' dispute
Teaching assistants at a Stafford academy have marked a milestone as they continue to strike in a dispute with the Academy trust over changes to their terms and conditions which they say would reduce their salaries by 25 per cent.
The teaching assistants were joined by members of the GMB Union outside Doxey Academy in Stafford on Wednesday for a show of solidarity on what was the 100th day of industrial action against the Creative Learning Partnership Trust, which runs the academy.
The group had a visible presence outside the front gates of the Academy on Doxey Road, with GMB flags and signs in full view of the road, and passing motorists pressed their horns to offer their support to the teaching assistants.
GMB Union had said the industrial action had come after school bosses had threatened to dismiss the school’s Teaching Assistants, only to re-employ them on worse terms and conditions on term-only contracts, with organiser Russell Farrington explaining what had happened to trigger the industrial action.
He said: "The dispute started when the school was transferred from the local authority to the trust in 2024 with guarantees from the employer that there would be not changes to terms and conditions, but then within six or seven months, they called our members into meetings and informed them that they would be changing the terms and conditions, whereby they would be losing £6,000 a year.
"The comment from the CEO at the time was, basically, accept the changes or leave, so our members called us in and made it quite clear they weren't prepared to accept it, and various alternatives were offered by our members, which were all knocked back, so they took the decision to take strike action and they've been here for 100 days.
"There's been no movement from the trust and while they did make two offers at the start, it still would have meant the £6,000 loss 12 months later and they'd still suffer the financial loss, and, sadly, two of our members felt they had no alternative, but to leave and find alternative employment."
Mr Farrington said what those striking wanted most was to retain the conditions they had signed up to and not lose anything and were not asking for any extra money, just not to be suffer the financial detriment the agreement would cause.
