Further strikes affect Forth Valley schools

Falkirk schools are closed today as teachers take to the picket lines.

Teachers' strike action continues today across parts of the Forth Valley - this time in Falkirk. 

All schools in the area are closed as staff walk out over pay and working conditions.

It's another wave of industrial action by 3 trade unions.

Clackmannanshire staff are walking out on the 1st of February, meanwhile Stirling teachers walked out earlier in the week.

Speaking earlier in the week, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said:

“It is testament to the strength of feeling of teachers about what is increasingly perceived as governments’ real contempt for them, dressed up in warm words and sophistry, that in spite of the deliberately restrictive anti-trade union legislation that remains in force, that our respective unions were able to beat the ballot thresholds and achieve industrial action mandates.”

Ms Bradley continued, “I hope that this will dissuade the governments in England and Wales from seeking to divide teachers and support staff on the issue of pay. Sadly, the Scottish Government for all its claims about its trade union-friendly credentials, is shamefully seeking to do this in Scotland.”

Ms Bradley added, “Clearly, there continues to be miscalculation in Scotland of the strength of our members’ resolve, as there does in England and Wales by the UK and Welsh governments; and misjudgement about the moral and financial unacceptability of another real-terms pay cut for education staff.”