Teachers balloting for strike action - school closures

[noblegiraffe]

A pre-ballot poll from the NEU suggests that the ballot will be in favour.

The NASUWT have announced that their ballot will open around 27th October in England, Scotland and Wales, and will close on 9th January, I assume that the NEU will be doing similar and it would be joint action.

Strike action would mean school closures around Jan/Feb time and obviously this will impact parents who need to start thinking about arrangements for this eventuality. Please consider emailing your MP asking them to forward any concerns about this to Kit Malthouse, Secretary of State for Education, as any pressure on him from parents to avert strike action by entering pay negotiations would be highly welcome.

The current pay offer of 5% for most teachers is unfunded, meaning that it has to come out of current school budgets. This means that the pay rise will result in cuts to education provision for your children. However, this offer is after over a decade of real terms pay cuts for teachers and with inflation at 10%, teachers cannot afford more pay cuts and to continue to shoulder the burden of government financial incompetence and deliberate running into the ground of public services any longer.

The unions are asking for an above inflation fully funded pay rise for teachers. A teacher pay rise, any teacher pay rise, cannot come out of current school budgets as this will mean a lower quality of education for your children. This could involve even bigger class sizes, even fewer courses on offer, even less provision for SEN children, fewer school trips and extra curricular activities.

School funding has been devastated by the Tory government over the last 12 years. SEN funding has been cut: the impact falls on schools and teachers to deal with. CAMHS funding has been cut: the impact falls on schools and teachers to deal with. Schools are being asked to solve more and more of society's issues, with fewer and fewer resources. It's unsustainable.

People will tell you that teachers are well paid and don't deserve a pay rise. However, we have a critical shortage of teachers, and the obvious conclusion is that if we can't get teachers for the pay that is on offer, then the pay is not enough. Market forces, right?

The government know the impact of increasing pay to attract and keep teachers; they have, this week, announced a big increase to the teacher training bursaries in response to the truly dire and alarming numbers of applicants to teacher training this year. They have also introduced early career payments in shortage areas. They have yet to extend this logic to increasing teacher pay to retain more experienced teachers - the ones who are crucial in training and supporting the new and early career teachers.

I'm not suggesting in the slightest that teachers are more deserving than other workers, or that we have it harder than other workers. If you have also not had a pay rise in years, that's unacceptable. If you are balloting for strike action, or undertaking strike action to try to improve your working conditions, then all power and support to you. I really hope that school support staff join us in taking action.

This government is ruining the country. I think everyone can see that now. Instead of proposing increases to public funding, they are proposing further cuts. But we've already cut everything.

They'll claim there is no money, but then propose tax cuts for the best off. They'll reject windfall taxes even when Shell is asking for them. They'll claim that higher wages will increase inflation so they can't possibly increase wages, while talking about how important it is to move to a higher wage economy. Not higher wages for the ordinary worker though, they mean the ones already on high wages. The ones who would have benefited from the 45p tax rate cut that they've already had to u-turn on.

The DfE have said that strike will damage the education of children, that they can't afford to miss out on more school. Teachers, if they vote to strike, will be voting for better education. We want a qualified, decent teacher in front of every class. This is absolutely not happening at the moment, and will not have a chance of happening unless teacher pay and conditions improve.

TLDR: Support teachers; the government are self-interested, public service destroying, incompetent shitheads.

Part of the problem is that we can only strike over our pay and conditions. I think unions have tried to talk about how low pay is impacting retention and recruitment. I don't think this messaging has been hugely successful, but right now I think they are trying to persuade their own members of the need to strike, rather than focusing outwards- that's the next step!

In reality, if teachers do strike, it will be over all the problems in education, including the fact that schools increasingly pick up the slack for other failing public services- we see the students every day, so we have to try and help them to the best of our abilities. But we can't strike over that, because it's illegal and I think unions have to be quite careful with their messaging, particularly prior to balloting.

Your comprehension skills are woeful

Still though - complaining about teacher wages and inflation is not the way to gain public sympathy.

Exactly this. I don't think parents always realise the role that the TA's play in the school. Teachers rely heavily on TAs to do the things that need doing to enable them to teach effectively. Not only will schools need to get rid of TA's it's also going to mean less money for resources, and potentially no money for heating.
The school I work in is already turning the heating off and taking measures to try and keep the classrooms warm (it's surprising how cold it is already for this time of year, especially in old buildings).
Teachers are educating our next generation, if that isn't important I really don't know what is. Not only that but they can, unfortunately, be a child's only safe place where they can come to learn, eat and be looked after.

It's alright for some people to say that they won't stand behind it but they should also make sure they aren't the people who will be complaining that their children aren't learning because they are too cold, don't get any help in class (because the teacher is on their own in a class of 30 children) and they have no reading books to bring home because there is no budget for them.

But as it has already been pointed out, you can only strike as a teacher over pay and working conditions.

Yes, this is the thing, people are talking about the inconvenience of school closures, but I know schools that closed for a week or more last winter because of staff shortages and lack of supply. Now, obviously that was partly due to the need to isolate due to covid, but equally if a school is starting from a position of being short staffed, then covid+flu+other winter sickness could easily push a school over the edge to the point where they feel it's not safe to open.

I agree on TA pay as well- TAs are vital and paid so little.

So rather than deal with one or two days of having to make alternative arrangements for your DC, you'd prefer to let the Govt go unchallenged as it bleeds schools dry in the long term, which is what will happen when the by pay increases are taken out of classroom budgets rather than be funded centrally?

I support the strike. I hate what my job has become. Cuts to outside services means I am now a therapist, as well as a teacher. Parents expect us to help their children with serious mental health issues and complex needs we simply aren't trained for or have the resources for. It's not that I don't want to help, it's just that I'm trying to teach 32 children the curriculum, with pressure from above to accelerate progress for a good third of the class which are behind, whilst also supporting about 8 children with complex mental health problems or special needs, and also parents struggling with their kids and asking us for advice.
It's exhausting and unsustainable. Education needs properly funding, as does SEN and CAMHs.

Better than having the strike declared not being legal, surely?

But also, as people on this thread have pointed out, teachers are leaving the profession because the pay isn't worth it for the workload, or the pay simply isn't liveable. It's important to talk about that too.

I dont think the strike will be declared illegal due to a thread on mumsnet though. It’s important to talk about pay (I’m a teacher, I’d love more money) but not in the same breath as asking the general public to support a strike for our benefit. They won’t.

Of course I understand that. If you read my other comments, you’d see if explained this several times. My point it that a lot of the public will struggle to focus of the bigger picture when what this represents is another short term disruption for families who have already had a huge amount of disruption to education.

+My point it that a lot of the public will struggle to focus of the bigger picture when what this represents is another short term disruption for families who have already had a huge amount of disruption to education*

Maybe the majority or ‘a lot’ support them.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about union messaging more generally.

I think we need to talk to parents honestly about the situation in schools. That's not asking them to support a strike, per se, but I think a lot of parents are really unaware of the national picture in terms of teacher recruitment, teacher retention and so on- and then, suddenly, their child had a long term supply for maths, and a different DT teacher every week, and they wonder what's going on.

In all honesty, I think it's unlikely that parents will all support strikes- I imagine some will be very angry about them. But if even a few draw the link between teacher pay, and their kid not having an English teacher for their GCSE year, then that's a good thing.

And yes, I do think we should talk about the wider situation in schools, and general underfunding of public services too- but if people believe in a capitalist economy, then teachers are free to work elsewhere if their pay/working conditions aren't good enough- and many teachers do feel that way. So therefore, pay needs to go up.

Let the public think what they like. People will only care if it directly affects them after all. The inconvenience will be at the forefront of their minds.
We're not striking for public support, we're striking for better pay and conditions. After all, conditions worsen if budgets aren't there because they're funding pay rises. TAs for example are worth their weight in gold. If they cut TAs further at my school I'll be edging even closer to the door. They are vital to reducing teacher workload/stress.

I think you may have missed the point that it's UNFUNDED which means it comes out if the existing schools budget. So yes it US the children who will miss out, because even more will have to be cut (though, Christ knows where from).

@noblegiraffe I'll definitely support teacher strikes, but I think 5% FUNDED, is probably a realistic target that would be supported. I think the main thing to get across to parents is that it's UNFUNDED & what that means for their children.

As a teacher in an independent school who earns less than my main school counterparts, whose employer removed us all from the teachers' pension scheme and who has been offered a 2.5% pay rise, I fully support all state school teachers if they eventually vote to strike.
We have union recognition in our school but we're not allowed to vote in this dispute.

Why are you not allowed to vote?

Presumably because we are an independent school.

I think, in negotiations, it's generally accepted that one aims high, and may eventually accept a lower offer.

The 5% is an average pay offer, btw- experienced teachers will be getting less. Yes, they are on higher salaries, but we also really need to keep them because their expertise is so important. Over the last 10 years, the most experienced teachers have taken a huge real terms pay cut.

How long would you stay in a job where you effectively got poorer and poorer every year? The tories don't value experienced teachers, but my experience is that parents and other teachers and students do.

It’s bad timing. There’s so much shit everyone is going through at the moment. Parents are working to pay their ever increasing bills, so having to make alternative arrangements for child care whilst teachers are striking isn’t an easy ask for many people. It will mean parents having to pay for child care or take unpaid leave, because not everyone has supportive family or understanding employers. So I think sympathy at this time for teachers is going to be thin on the ground. There’s lots of workers who haven’t had a pay rise since before covid, or had a very minimal increase. It is what it is.

I am a teacher and can no longer afford my outgoings. Mortgage has doubled and energy bills tripled.

@Disneyblueeyes

if they cut TA pay any further, they'll be charging T's to work! It's dire isn't it.

I understand your POV, re the public, but I think it would be better to have them on board.

I'm supportive of anything the teachers feel necessary. It's a last resort and a tough decision for them to make.

There’s lots of workers who haven’t had a pay rise since before covid, or had a very minimal increase. It is what it is.

And this is why companies are struggling to fill vacancies. Because workers who haven’t had pay rises have left to go to Aldi or other places.

As will the teachers. So who will teach your child then Livelovebehappy?

I fully support the strikes.