On 20th November 2011 Andrew Marr interviewed NASUWT General Secretary Chris Keates. PLEASE NOTE "THE ANDREW MARR SHOW" MUST BE CREDITED IF ANY PART OF THIS TRANSCRIPT IS USEDANDREW MARR: The National Association of School Teachers has just voted to join the strike over pension reform. Unless things change, thousands of teachers will walk out on Wednesday week. The union's General Secretary Chris Keates joins us from Birmingham. Good morning, Chris Keates. CHRIS KEATES: Good morning. ANDREW MARR: Your members are going to disrupt children's education all around the country even though the package that the government has offered you means that nobody who is within ten years of retiring will find their pension affected. Why is this strike justified? CHRIS KEATES: Well this is the first time in over a decade that the NASUWT has balloted its members for industrial action, and actually our members would prefer not to be on strike. We've engaged constructively with the government in the negotiations. I've been in with the TUC led negotiations. And what we've faced is actually month after month of prevarication and no progress being made in terms of providing us with information in data we need, providing us with evidence that there is a problem with the teachers' pension scheme, and our members have therefore been faced with no alternative but to actually move to a ballot for industrial action. ANDREW MARR: But you … CHRIS KEATES: (simultaneously) The … ANDREW MARR: If I can, sorry, just interrupt there. I mean there have been a series of concessions by the government since this process started. What do you now need to hear from Francis Maude or other ministers which would stop your members striking? CHRIS KEATES: Well, first of all, at the eleventh hour the government has put on the table some amendments to their proposals, which were welcome and we welcomed them at the time. But actually they need to be examined very carefully to make sure that that data stacks up, and at the moment we're involved in frantic activity to try to see what those proposals will actually mean. ANDREW MARR: So to be clear, there is a possibility that you will not go on strike at the end of the month if the new proposals mean what you hope they do? CHRIS KEATES: Well I believe everybody engaged in this process has got a responsibility to try to avoid strike action if that's possible, but the fact of the matter is that we're being put under tremendous pressure. We have a ridiculous timescale in which to try to resolve these issues. We have to do very, very detailed work. Pensions are complex issues, and they're complex issues in terms of finding out if the latest offer from the government actually stacks up and delivers the kind of things that the government is saying that it will. ANDREW MARR: Alright. Chris Keates, thank you very much indeed for joining us. INTERVIEW ENDS
| 
E-mail this to a friend 
Printable version 
Bookmark with:
What are these?