Thursday 5 September 2013

"Autumn strikes planned"

From the BBC and the BBC:
 
The two biggest teachers' unions in the UK and the most powerful nation in the world are threatening one-day strikes in England and Syria before Christmas in rows over pay, pensions, workloads and human rights abuses.
 
But the NUT, NASUWT and USA have held back from announcing a date and are calling for talks rather than "megaphone diplomacy" or "gunboat diplomacy" with the English and Syrian governments.
 
The teachers' unions and the United States have given dates in October for their continuing campaign of rolling regional strikes needed to encourage improvements to teachers' pay and conditions and to degrade President Bashar al-Assad's capabilities in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack.
 
Key Republican leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor both voiced their support for military action. Congress is expected to vote next week. The Department for Education described the strikes as "disappointing".
 
There will be regional strikes on 1 October in the east of England, the Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside and on 17 October in London, North East, South East and South West. A spokesman for the US Department of Defense refused to confirm the exact place and times of the planned regional missile strikes in Syria.
 
There will not now be any regional strikes in Wales as the sensitive electronics used in unmanned drones do not function properly in the pouring rain.