TEFL Workers' Union Strike Continues!
English Language Teachers at Malvern House continue to fight a hard battle against management.
Donate to the strikers’ hardship fund.
IWW members, working as TEFL teachers for Malvern House in London, have completed their fourth day of industrial action as part of a dispute with their employer Malvern International.
The dispute, which began with a 2 day strike earlier this year (29th & 30th Sept), has continued to shut down all teaching at the school for another day due to refusal by management to conduct negotiations with the IWW on our members’ demands.
Workers are striking to win paid prep-time for classes, an end to zero-hour contracts, the reinstatement of an unfairly sacked colleague and for the employer to agree to recognise the IWW as the union with collective bargaining rights for teachers. The attitude of management has been continually obstructive towards the union’s attempts to establish a dialogue on industrial relations and dismissive towards the demands of striking staff, even claiming that lessons shouldn’t require any prep time.
The 11 teachers at Malvern House voted unanimously for strike action and spirits have remained high on the fourth day of strikes. IWW members have shown great determination to continue to strike until their employer comes to the table for meaningful discussion with the union on all the demands. The energy on the picket line has been very powerful, with strikers waving flags, singing solidarity forever, Bellia Ciao and leading chants.
“The teachers united will never be divided!”
“Whose got the power? We’ve got the power! What kind of power? Union power!”
Strikers also received and reciprocated solidarity messages with other striking English language teachers in Manchester.
After the initial picket outside of Malvern House, strikers then leafleted students and staff at the University of East London where Malvern International also runs language courses. The response from both the students and fellow teachers was very positive, with many sharing their agreement with the strikers’ demands and disappointment towards the management.
The support from students was a big boost to the strike as teachers working conditions are students learning conditions. As students are often paying large amounts to attend these language courses they have a shared interest in their teachers having adequate paid prep time and job security rather than the stress of precarious zero-hour contract work.
Following on from this latest day of action IWW members will now be discussing further plans for escalation, including a full week-long strike to bring teaching to a halt.
As part of the One Big Union we ask all branches and members to discuss ways of supporting further industrial action such as organising for members to attend the next picket and ‘adopting’ a striker by contributing to the strikers hardship fund and inviting them to attend a branch meeting.
For more information about ways to support please contact tefl@iww.org.uk
Originally published in The Wildcat #62 November 2025 newsletter of the UK IWW.