I don't understand striking

[WrendaleCountryDogs]

I really don't understand striking. If you're not happy with your pay, get another job. I work in a care home. I'm on £9.80 an hour. No, it's not enough. But its a job. Amazon are striking because they want more than £10.50 an hour for packing parcels. I earn less to keep people alive. Medication, food, personal care etc.

Social care should never have been privatised. It should be not-for-profit. Another thing we can blame Thatcher for. They sold all the family silver and now all of our utilities and transport are owned by people who take enormous profits and put nothing into the infrastructure. Hence sewage on beaches.
Bringing us out of the EU means that they no longer have to maintain standards for beaches...and boy, did that go downhill fas.

Because if you don't stand up for yourself those who have power over you will pay you as little as they can get away with.

This
the people who do the actual work that creates the value for society are paid very little and all the profits are siphoned off and given to shareholders who do not work.

This is a great post ItsCalledAConversation.

But you know what really annoys me is, people, like the Op, will sit back and watch others fight and take all the shit that goes with it, for rights and positive change.
They sit in the sidelines, shouting thier criticisms, and not get thier hands dirty.

Yet, when those rights have been won, when positive change has happened, they are more than happy to skip to the front of the queue to reap those benefits.

I know this is just what happens and rights are for everyone, regardless if I think they deserve it or not . But it really boils my piss

Rant over 😁

@WrendaleCountryDogs

No one striking is doing so just for more pay, their terms of contract are being changed, pensions are being threatened and many many more things that the media fail to put out there and they just focus on how much someone is paid.

Because people just focus on pay everything else is not looked at and everyone who latches onto the pay of that profession has to cone out with if you don't like the pay get another job and I don't earn that.

Please read beyond the headlines it may help you understand why the workers are striking and losing pay to do so.

No one wants to strike it is a last resort, unions would have been trying to sort this out for months behind the scenes.

Amazon make a big profit, so workers feel someone is getting rich off their labour.

The care sector is interesting- we aren't prepared to pay enough in taxes to give you a better wage. Sorry.

Can you honestly say that you provide the best care that you can? Not rushing from one care call to another or having to prioritise which person you provide care to next? Working regular overtime because there is no one to cover the shift?
If you truly cared you would be looking at ways to improve the service that you work for, so the most vulnerable are getting the best care, and staff are being rewarded properly for the work you do.
Striking is one way to do this.

@minou123

*But you know what really annoys me is, people, like the Op, will sit back and watch others fight and take all the shit that goes with it, for rights and positive change.

They sit in the sidelines, shouting thier criticisms, and not get thier hands dirty.
Yet, when those rights have been won, when positive change has happened, they are more than happy to skip to the front of the queue to reap those benefits.

I know this is just what happens and rights are for everyone, regardless if I think they deserve it or not . But it really boils my piss*

This.

Every benefit we as workers have in this country, from annual leave to disability rights to maternity pay, has been achieved as a result of the literal blood, sweat and tears of those who went out and fought for it (physically, in some instances).

Employers (particularly in the private sector) are rarely hand-wringing philanthropists endlessly striving to make their employees' lives better. If certain rights didn't exist in law, they'd disappear in a New York minute.

There are plenty of people happy to stand around deriding strikers, but they'd be devastated if they lost any of those hard-won rights.

Most care homes (shockingly 84%) are privately run so their pay doesn't come from the taxpayer, but from the residents.

Many care assistants I've worked with have this attitude because especially in so called 'unskilled' roles, it's expected that you're grateful for the opportunity to be exploited by someone else making money on your hard work.

If it were legal to, they'd pay you less than the nmw, how low would you be prepared to go before you jumped ship? £8 ph? £5ph? Nothing?

And part of the reason we have a staffing crisis across so many industries and services is because many have gone and got a better job and people aren't attracted to those industries and services because of the pay and conditions. And the people who can change this aren't listening and still trying to convince people they should be grateful to be exploited. That's why there's strikes because talking to the government and employers has been fruitless, it's been warned for a long time that this would happen if pay and conditions weren't improved to keep and attract new staff and it's been ignored, striking shows what it would be like to lose the people doing those jobs, striking means you're only losing those skills for days, them going and getting a better job means they're lost forever - and then what?
I read a news article the other day about a lady with a broken hip left for 25 hours on the floor of a care home because there were no ambulances available (not a strike day) and there's so many stories out there along similar lines - yet no one who can is interested in doing anything to remedy that, the finger pointing goes around in circles, I have waited 8 hours for an ambulance years ago for someone who'd had a stroke and it eventually came from the next county.
The deterioration has happened over years and years and we've hit crisis point. They're striking because they don't want to leave, but they will be forced to if things don't improve.

Because you're happy enough on poverty level wages doesn't mean everyone has to be. Enjoy the gutter. Don't try & take anyone else with you. It isn't a race to the bottom.

Lots of people have left hence the striking.

In nursing we can’t recruit or retain staff.

People have left because they are not happy that we can’t offer our patients the best quality of care because we are so understaffed. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking.

You deserve more too op but you won’t get it if you don’t believe your worth.

"Most care homes (shockingly 84%) are privately run so their pay doesn't come from the taxpayer, but from the residents."

@beguilingeyes are they not reliant on local authority rates, topped up by private residents?

We are paying, either directly or by taxes, and apparently we don't want to pay more.

I think it depends on how much savings people have.
I'm not sure it's just a matter of paying more tax.. although I'm not averse. I just think that the government would rather spend it pretty much anywhere else.

Yes much better that there are no teachers, paramedics, doctors, nurses, transport workers, university staff than ensure vital roles pay a living wage or perhaps even more?

@WrendaleCountryDogs
But if people follow you suggestion and leave... what happens?
No doctors, no nurses, no paramedics, no teachers....

So what is your suggestion?

People entered the profession knowing what it was....it has changed beyond what people signed up for.

The care sector is interesting- we aren't prepared to pay enough in taxes to give you a better wage. Sorry
or is it that the gvt, who allocate the spending of said tax dont prioritize the care sector?

I think it entirely depends on how many applicants there are for a particular role or job.

For example there are not enough people applying for care roles or nursing positions, so those people have a lot of ammunition to strike and clearly need to be paid better.

However there are several people applying for each role in places like Royal Mail or RMT, as these jobs are actually semi desirable. RMT seem to constantly be on strikes, even before the current trend for it.

It's in those instances I would say if you don't like the pay or conditions, then maybe you should aim higher or look/train for a different position. As there are plenty of other people who are willing to do your job!

This argument is so short sighted. "I'm happy with my shit lot so others should be too." This is exactly the mentality that the Tories want- people turning on each other instead of directing their rage where it belongs- at them while they line their pockets and those of their mates. It is not a race to the bottom. Everyone deserves a decent wage. Instead, what we have is real terms cuts to ordinary workers while the shareholders and bosses line their pockets. The gap between rich and poor has never been so wide and profits are soaring. Wake up and start a showing some solidarity. Just because you are happy- don't criticise others who aren't. It's completely self- centred. The insinuation that people don't "care" because they are striking is insulting. The mess we are in affects everyone- poor patient care, children getting a crap
deal in underfunded schools with exhausted teachers, crime rife with the police powerless...the list goes on. The Tories have destroyed the country whole bleeding it dry for profit. There is money- it's just all being directed in the wrong way. The notion that certain professions are a vocation and so people should put up with anything has held the NHS and Education system up for far too long. There is nothing wrong with people having enough of martyring themselves to a job whilst destroying their own mental health in the process. There is a reason why nurses and teachers are leaving in their droves and these are people who aren't afraid of hard work. I'm glad you are happy, but wind your neck in about others who aren't. They have every right to strike and I support them 100%. Ordinary people need to stand together. Division works for those in power- not us.

We’d be in some trouble if all nurses and paramedics left their jobs wouldn’t we?

People shouldn’t have to strike if wealth was more evenly distributed and they got a decent wage.

Lots of teachers are leaving. There is a face book group based on just that. People are going to the civil service and other roles including cabin crew and charity work. Lots of pay decreases but less stress and more happiness. I am following it closely because I need to make the choice between moving schools or moving out of education. Not something I ever thought I would do.
No it's not all about pay and many people are not striking about pay but officially that is what we have to strike on.

I read yesterday that Jeff Bezos could give all of his workers $90,000 (one and a half million of them) and he'd still have more money than he did before the pandemic.
The Tories gave billions to cronies in the pandemic. Millions of pounds worth of fake or useless PPE. And we're arguing over people that want £15 an hour.
The money is trickling up, not down.

Feels like another frothy anti striker post to me.

I care about my job. Deeply. You have no idea how much. I also care to keep the terms and conditions that others fought for.

If you think it is about money then you need to think again.

The money is helpful. Not going to lie. But I would forego that to keep the terms and conditions.

Our workplace runs on goodwill a lot. I’m happy to continue doing that. But not at the expense of having my terms changed, changes to my pension or illness and redundancy allowance. And those are the ‘little things’ when it comes to what they are actually trying to do.

You deserve more. Absolutely. But don’t tell me you don’t understand what I am fighting for when you sit on your days off or are on holiday. Others fought for that.

And as for leaving if I don’t like it? To do what pray tell? I trained long and hard and continue to do so in order that I can do my job to the best of my ability. If I don’t do it to the best of my ability, I can’t bear to think of the consequences.

It is about so much more than money.

Informed opinion…not.

"I do my job because I care. Like the NHS workers are supposed to care. It's not all about money".

Nottingham University Hospital was fined £800,000 today for their failure to care for baby Wynter Andrew and her mother, Sarah Andrews. One of the reasons that that little baby died was that the unit was so short staffed, midwives were looking after numerous high-risk mothers at the same time, rather than the one to one care that those women would have needed. The midwives had written to the trust management 10 months before Wynter's death highlighting their concerns about staffing levels and how this was putting women and babies at risk.
This is why we are striking. I know I can speak for my tema, we LOVE our job, but, we can no longer provide safe effective care to our patients as there is not enough staff. It is certainly not just about money.