Camden School Staff Strike for Fair Pay

0:00On March 26, school support staff at Richard Cobden Primary School and Camden are striking for a small pay increase, pushing the local labor council to step in. These unison members, mostly teaching assistants, want to move from pay scale 3 to scale 4. That means an extra 23 pins an hour at the low end, up to 94 pins at the top. Their roles have grown far beyond the basics, but their wages haven't kept up. The root issue ties into a special educational needs crisis across the borough. More children with high level support requirements are in mainstream classrooms without enough dedicated help. Staff now handle complex tasks daily, like managing challenging behaviors and one-on-one interventions, even as budgets stay tight. Many of these workers are women and single parents struggling to get by. They describe exhaustion from long days, often rushing to second jobs after school ends around 3.30 pm. Some skip basics like glue sticks due to funding shortages,

1:00feeling trapped in poverty while doing harder work than ever. Strikes have included walkouts and picket lines, with more primary schools eyeing action since pay varies for similar jobs burrow-wide. A few schools already found money to bump up rates, and unions highlight high salaries for top leaders amid low pay for frontline roles. Camden council says it's working with schools, governors, and unions to resolve this with minimal disruption to learning, insisting job evaluations, ensure fairness. As pressure builds, the fight underscores bigger questions about investing in education support.