A LOCAL teacher has expressed pride in her colleagues after they overwhelmingly voted for strike action in their fight for better pay.
Teaching unions across Northern Ireland have agreed to further industrial action, putting pressure on the Department of Education to implement a pay deal already agreed upon in the UK.
Sally Rees, an Enniskillen teacher and member of both the NASUWT executive committee and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions Executive Committee, praised her fellow educators for their commitment.
“It’s not a position anyone wants to be in, but it’s testament to our members that they want to be paid fairly,” Ms Rees told the ‘Herald.
“We’re in negotiations with the management side, but this could have been avoided earlier. We didn’t want to reach this point, but here we are now.”
Fermanagh teachers have been striking intermittently throughout the past year as part of a long-running campaign for pay parity with their UK counterparts.
Ms Rees hopes the Department of Education will reconsider its stance before further industrial action, planned for early next year, becomes necessary.
“I’m proud of our members and the work we do,” she said. “Across all sister trade unions, we stand together, showing our collective strength to demand fair wages.
“No teacher wants to go on strike, but we deserve to be paid fairly for our work and to focus on teaching the young people in front of us.”