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.

People seem to think I’m against the strike? I understand why you’re doing it, I understand your point of view, I don’t think you’re wrong. But I do think the PR and optics around this are complex and having public opinion on your side is important. So I hope the messaging is managed very very carefully.

My point is that striking will only make things worse for kids, not better. Surely any teacher must see that?

Worse for a few days of strike action but better in the long term because your kids' schools might actually be able to recruit some teachers to teach them? My eldest DC started secondary school last year and her timetable is a fudge of PE teachers doing science lessons,supply teachers and cover lessons in the hall mixed in with a few lessons from subject specialists. This is a good school in a pretty affluent area. Many schools are dropping Computing, Economics etc as options because they can't find staff. All of this limits the options of my child so a few days of strike disruption is worth it if it can in any way address the long-term damage to children's education of not having people to teach them

@Postapocalypticcowgirl Yes, as a 53 year old, ex accountant with experience in many sectors, I understand how negation works.

and I understand we need to keep experienced teachers, well any teachers tbh. I know how fire the situation is.

However, it's dire in many sectors & very few are going to get the pay rises they would like or deserve. It's not just teachers.

Actually I've been in a job where I haven't had a pay rise, since 2010. Honestly, teachers & public sector workers aren't the only ones.it doesn't make it right, but you're not unique either.

@Tadpoll

The thing that shines through to me about your attitude towards this is that you only care about your DD and how that affects her.
Next year you won't care about secondary education. only which ever college she gets into.

Its this shortsightedness that has hurt education.

I mean I totally get why they are doing this but I know talk has been round here, along the lines of "as jobs go they're reasonably well paid compared to other sectors"

I work for the nhs we were given a crappy £1400 across the board but now this autumn they announce that we need to put more into our pensions, we all have to work longer so in theory will probably due younger and get less out the pension pot! Striking is imminent and will cause total chaos!

It's a difficult one as if they award higher pay it comes out of schools budgets which has a knock-on effect to other things like resources. I'm not sure what the solution is really.

Everyone who works hard in a professional capacity in a role they've trained for should be earning a decent amount to live on - that's the bottom line.

Well it would, but I'm not sure how we'll achieve that. Not a good enough reason NOT to strike though.

@OhIdoLike2bBesideTheSeaside

it terrifies me, strikes in the NHS. Good staff of all varieties need & deserve better pay. The money the NHS has needs to be better managed. I don't know if it was better managed if there would be enough funding or not, but I expect better management of it would go a long way to closing the gaps!!

I want you to be better paid, but I really don't want there to be strikes, it really does scare me!

I've been thinking about leaving my job for the past year for this reason.

The pay is so bad compared to other equivalent jobs and I think what no-one realises is that because there's no money to speak of, I'm dipping my hand into my pocket at least once a month without much chance of claiming it back. It's not much but over the course of a year, it builds up.

If you think it's bad as a teacher, TAs are even worse off. The workload might not be the same but they still have to do CPD and depending on their role help or do their own planning.

@Disneyblueeyes no, it's not a good reason not to strike.

I think the only things you can do are not to say things like 'let the public think what they like' (it does tend to make you think 'screw you too then' and to keep repeating it needs to be FUNDED' and make it more about being funded & teacher retention.

If only there was an actual adult in politics (or willing to into politics)able for all of this, I'd vote for them, no matter which party.

I support the strike action. If teaching isn’t going to be an attractive profession, then the education children receive will be poor quality.

I jumped ship from state education a few years ago because of working conditions. My former (grammar) school have gone through 4 replacements in 5 years because they cannot find and keep decent a physics teacher. The local secondary doesn’t have a single physics specialist. Of the group of friends I trained with I’m the only one of 8 still teaching. The children in this country deserve better.

I stand with them, and with the NHS workers who people clapped on their doorsteps like performing seals as long as they were bearing the full weight of the pandemic. I'll also support UCU if they achieve the requisite threshold in their new disaggregated ballot which, if successful, will see industrial action in every university in the country.

All these strikes, all this discontent and protest over current UK working conditions, and that's bearing in mind we have the most draconian strike legislation in Europe (50% turnout).

The cost of living is escalating and risible pay rise offers mean de facto salary cues, while the usual suspects trouser the wealth of the nation as ever.

I foresee a general strike.

While it's always nice to have public support, the teaching unions shouldn't rely on it.
As an example, the last pay round in Victoria in 2021, it was infuriating to see the union, the only union at that, running focus groups, etc. to find out what parents think when they should have been campaigning properly, i.e. more vigorously. They dragged their heels on meaningful action.

The pay deal was shit and teachers resigned from the union because of it.

The unions should, of course, explain their case. Possibly in the style of Mick Lynch. Don't disappear down the rabbit hole of, well others haven't had a pay rise, etc.

I fully support strike action from teachers and any other workers. The country is being decimated by this Government and we need to fight back. Solidarity OP.
#EnoughIsEnough.

I dont think the strike will be declared illegal due to a thread on mumsnet though.

I don't work for a union so that would be a bit odd if my thread were seen as 'union messaging'.

I'm a teacher. I'm a member of a teaching union, but I think I can say what I like?

While I wish teachers could get a payrise, in the real world a vast majority will not be getting 5% pay rise and many jobs have gone down in real terms too so I suppose there's not so much going for the strike in terms of support.

But it won’t just be ‘a few days of strikes’ though, will it? It rarely is. The government will not cave in and roll over after four or five days. It will be a few weeks, spread out over some months.

And those companies are struggling to hire. If teachers quit an no one replaces them it will have a more devastating effect than if e.g an advertising agency couldn't retain staff. Some people think that the worst will happen is teachers will shake their heads, tut and continue regardless but the problem is they are not continuing.

Solidarity with all striking workers ✊🏽

@TheNefariousOrange most companies I know are preparing for recession now. Including mine. Haven't had a payrise in three years. I don't know anyone who got more than 5% payrise but that doesn't mean I don't want the teachers to get one.
However, I think each teacher getting more than 5% payrise won't help. We don't have the money in this country unless the government actually shake things up and get organised and even then when people are actually dying because of a lack of funding and organisation in the healthcare system, I still can't see things improving that much for teachers.

The government seem to be happy to let things to fall apart for that to happen, when teachers leave and schools have to shut long term that's when things will change.

Is it right no, but I think that's what will have to happen sadly. Look at what is happening with pensions as well. No doubt the government will be filling any gaps in those left by the fall in the markets. It's a very expensive mess the U.K. is in and everyone will pay for it not just teachers.

The public messaging would work better if it was phrased as ‘support teachers who are striking to prevent unfounded pay rises coming out of school budgets which mean less money for your child’s education’

People don’t grasp that it’s not just about 5% being too low - lots of teachers WOULD reluctantly accept that, in an economy where many aren’t getting inflation linked rises. People don’t grasp that the objection is to the fact that as ANY size of pay rise is to be unfounded, there’s less money for books and heating and play equipment - less for every child.

And the messaging needs to make clear people need to support a very short term disruption in order to ensure quality education into the future. Emphasise what schools will be like in 2,5,10 years time if funding to schools drops.

The trouble is, people don’t understand it’s not just about teachers wanting pay rises bigger than many have got. And they don’t understand they need to look at education beyond this year, rather than little Jonny needing to stay at home 3 days in February or whatever it is.

The messaging is so vital and needs reporting and repeating because government and media will deflect it to focus on the points of my last paragraph and the key points get lost.

Do most people support education being properly and better funded. Yes. Do they support the idea budgets for books and teachers shouldn’t be reduced. Yes. Make it about this. Do they support teachers getting bigger pay rises than many have had. No, many don’t. The focus MUST be on school funding.

@beatriceplotter - the question isn’t whether teachers should get more than the 5% already awarded but who will fund the 5%. As the government aren’t funding the 5%, the school has to pay it from their already overstretched budget. What service would you prefer your school to cut to fund the 5%?- turn off the heating this winter, get rid off a couple of TA’s, don’t replace the broken play equipment, no artwork materials etc

Here is an idea. Academy trusts are made to cut the pay of their ceo. They get rid of all their directors of education and this and that. Have a look at a staff list of these trusts and look at how much money they are taking out of education. These salaries need to go back to schools and teachers.

Exactly. It's not about the amount awarded, but how it's funded.

We're not allowed to strike about school funding, because that's politics, not teacher pay and conditions.

We are not allowed to strike to have the 5% offer fully funded.

Its frustrating isnt it.

They force strikes to only be about pay and then the media moans about strikers being greedy.