May Day Bolton rally takes place supporting striking workers

The Bolton Strike May Day Rally took place at noon in Victoria Square, bringing together educators, healthcare workers, and their supporters in a show of solidarity.

Members of the National Education Union (NEU) are on strike today with many schools shut or partially shut to pupils.

Young people were also part of the crowd with their parents in support of the teachers.

Sharples School teacher and Bolton NEU representative Robert Poole, said: “The rally today is in support of all the striking workers who are on strike at the moment and have been on strike for the past year and to think about the cost-of-living crisis.

"It is about demanding action from the Government really and thinking about what’s going to happen and what we need to happen going forward.

Harriet and Lily Jarvis (Image: NQ)

“We are hoping to raise awareness, letting people know why we are on strike and hopefully on the lead up to the elections the Government will listen to us and realise this is something people really care about.

“No one wants to take strike action, it is always our last resort, but it really is true that it is a short-term impact on people but in the long term not doing anything will have a worse impact on them.”

There were also members from the Royal College of Nursing and NHS workers, Bolton’s Trade Union Congress, Unite Bolton, Unison Bolton LG, Greater Manchester Mental Health Branch Unison, Strike Map, Organise Now!, Education for Tomorrow and the RMT Rail Union.

Mr Poole addressed the crowd before speeches were given from Tom Darbyshire, member of the NEU, Jo Squires member of the NEU, Laura Flynn, member of the National Association of Headteachers, Oisin Duncan and Martin McAreavey from the University College Union, Joanne Thompson from Unison and the crowd also heard from member of RMT, Doug Oxer.

• Also read: Teacher strikes: Bolton teacher 'Strikes are last resort'

Mr Darbyshire said: “Comrades the money is there, the money is there but it is just not distributed fairly.”

Ms Flynn said: “We have got a recruitment and retention crisis in schools, a crisis in the STEM system, Ofsted is creating unimaginable levels of stress for workers across schools.

“Things can’t continue as they are, so a message to parents - I know how difficult it is for your schools to be shut today and I know particularly off the back of the pandemic how difficult it is and how much you want your children in schools but their education is suffering day in day out and week in week out because of what has been done to the education system.

“It has been under valued and under funded for too long, we are at crisis point, things need to change.

“We are fighting for your future, the future of your children and we really hope parents support schools.”

Julia Simpkins (Image: NQ)

Julia Simpkins, a retired teacher who joined the rally in support of the NEU, said: “I have joined the rally today because we are on strike.

“We have had six days of strike now and teachers haven’t had an above inflation pay rise for twelve years now and so the cost of living keeps going up but our wages are not keeping in line with that.

" I think even more important than that is the amount of money being given to schools is not keeping in line with that either and we saw the pay offer of five per cent that Gillian did make to our union was not fully funded.

“Point five of that was funded but that means that money has got to come out of the school’s budget and  schools’ budgets have been cut to the bone already.

• Also read: Bolton teachers to walk out causing schools to close

“We don’t do photocopying, we don’t have theatre groups coming in anymore, we don’t have instrumental teachers, all those wonderfully enriching activities that used to happen in schools tend not to happen anymore.

“So, what is happening now when there is no money, we are losing our classroom assistants.

“We went in to teaching to excite children, to educate them, to support them, to work with them and a large part of our time is filling in paperwork that is not useful for anything just so the government can tick their tick boxes.

“So, this strike is about pay, and it is about funding but really it is about the kind of education we want for our children.”

A large number of workers and activists globally have marked May Day with rallies calling for higher salaries, reduced working hours and better working conditions.

May Day is observed in many countries as a day to celebrate workers’ rights with rallies, marches and other events.

This year’s events had bigger turnouts than in previous years as Covid-19 restrictions were drastically eased and opposition centred on how governments’ economic plans will affect workers.