SCOTTISH teachers only won their substantial pay rise by threatening to strike, Education Institute of Scotland (EIS) general secretary Larry Flanagan said today.

The union leader addressed the EIS annual general meeting after teachers voted to accept a salary increase of 3 per cent, 7 per cent and 3 per cent over three years.

“I said last year at AGM that it’s not enough to have the arguments, not enough to have the moral high ground, not enough to have sympathetic voices off stage,” Mr Flanagan told delegates.