To be stressed out about pressure to strike

[peppapighastakenovermylife]

Without saying too much, my 'organisation' has announced strike action.

I really do not want to do it but feel awful at not. I wouldnt actually have to cross a picket line or anything (can simply work at home) but feel like I 'should' strike.

The strike is over our pensions. I understand the impact but feel that I can't worry about something now that will happen in probably 35 - 40 years time. I feel pretty lucky to even be able to afford to pay anything into a pension, let alone a company one. The returns are still better than other private pensions. However I understand why some are striking.

It is potentially two days strike. I cannot afford to lose that money. I am the main wage earner and just come off SMP. If I strike food will either be going on the credit card with no clear means of paying it off soon. There are more pressing issues such as redundancy, fuel costs, reductions in tax credits and so on looming. I feel like I need to worry about now rather than way in the future and do not have the 'luxury' that many well paid members of staff might have of not really noticing the loss of a days pay.

Would you strike? Have you gone on strike in the past? I am too 'young' (I wish ) to have really been in this situation before

All the government wants is for public sector employees to pay the same as those in the private sector. What is the issue here?

I really worry about some of the people on here. Xenia - do you realise you have suggested that "we" can't afford for public sector workers to live more than 2-3 years after they retire? Sorry to inconvenience the Treasury, if only we hadn't campaigned for decent education, healthcare, housing, dreaded health & safety etc we could all responsibly get killed off in eg Kings X fire or drinking dirty water and save the Govt. some pension credits...Crazy. Historically, it is the case that the only way we got children out of chimneys was by eg going on strike. Of course its cheaper to get your chimneys swept by seven year olds. But I suspect you don't mean YOUR seven year old.....Can somebody please explain to me why a retired dinner lady has to pay for a financial crisis started by the US banking system? Go on, tell me it's all Gordon Brown's fault...

Any strike that a union calls is futile, the reductions in public spending have to occur or we will be punished by the markets. OP if I were you, I'd go into the work.

alicelidde
My history is a bit weak. When exactly did the chimney sweep strike occur?

This is from the financing retirement web page bluenordic so if I'm reading this and your post correctly, are you saying the govt is asking public sector workers to cut their payments by half?????
'Most public sector employers currently pay an average of 18 percent of their salary into their public sector pension schemes. This is almost twice as much as the typical amount paid into final salary schemes within the private sector.'

Hmm bluenordic not sure about the chimney sweeps either, but will the match girls strike do you??

bluenordic, as a point of information, the USS is not a public service pension scheme, and the changes to it are not the result of the Hutton report.

" Lord Hutton rejected the frequently made claim that public sector pensions are gold-plated.

He pointed out that the average pension in payment was currently £7,800 a year, which he described as modest, not excessive.

And he rejected the idea put forward by employers' organisations that because private sector pension provision was poor by comparison, public sector pensions should be dragged down to the same level.

"I have rejected a race for the bottom," he said."

BBC news website

The public sector feeds off the wealth generated by private sector workers and is dependent like a leech on its host on the private sector. The public coffers are bare. It doesn't matter if there are high paid workers in both sectors or minimum wage people in both sectors, we just cannot afford to pay what we have paid in the past to the public sector.

Most private sector workers amazingly are employed in companies with under 8 staff I think and they do not provide copper bottom final salary pensions with generous maternity rights and sick pay. Those private sector workers get the minimum holiday rights, 6 weeks on 90% pay maternity and no sick pay except SSP and most have no pension at all. The public sector is largely a lot better off than that and it can't be afforded in the way it has.

It tends only to be where very large % of a workforce are unionised that union power has much impact. If representation is 10% then that is not likely to get anyone anywhere. The most recent Under ground strikes have not even had enough off to close the lines and when BA had its strikes although they were disruptive they did manage to keep some things going as enough people weren't in that union.

No academic (or anyone in my position) can possibly complain about stress. It's pathetic. Get a grip. Stress is a 5am bus to get to a 6am cleaning job for a minimum wage and then a second cleaning job once you get back.

I disagree. It is an extremely stressful job. I spend nearly every waking hour on this job, so much so that I am about to leave it with an accompanying reduction in pay of 10K per year. Second cleaning jobs dont necessarily come with litigious students, constant complaints, working without pay for many many hours and the extreme work loads.

I would never say that cleaning jobs arent stressful. I believe its ignorant to suggest anyone's job isnt unless they experience the full force of it.

and btw, the job includes rather rapid transit between sites with very little time to "make it" and 100 people waiting for you, all baying for blood because they "have paid" and with NO cover

I believe its ignorant to suggest anyone's job isnt unless they experience the full force of it.

Absolutely.

happiest your oh is very very lucky. I lead two undergrad programs and one postgrad with 6 modules to myself and 40 PATs. All on 22 hrs a week.

But we sit in an office or lecture. It's dead easy compraed to many jobs. Stress and balancing life and work is just something people need to deal with. If you have relatively high pay, some status and are in a graduate type job it is much easier and much less stressful than lots of jobs. Rate of mental illness are worse in people with no power and no money at the bottom, not academics and busy businesswomen.

No we dont sit in an office or lecture. Its an active job.

Are you suggesting that the money is such that it means we cannot experience stress? hmmm

Xenia 'dependent like a leech' is one way of putting th relationship between the public and private sectors, I suppose, if you want to be both completely wrong and utterly offensive!
I prefer the rather less rabid 'interdependent' myself.

xenia - I am seriously on the edge due to the work pressures and financial situation in academia right now. And I don't mean a bit stressed. You do not escape it. There are no breaks, no set hours and the students paying for their courses complain constantly (well some of them). I wake up several times a night having nightmares about what I haven't done / mistakes I made (dreamt not real).

Every job is relative. They have different stressors. Some more than others. No I am not physically over loaded or anxious or being paid a low wage but the pace of work, expectations and constant competition is too much. Perhaps I am pathetic and need to get a grip but I am on the edge of a breakdown over it all and I know I am not the only academic feeling like this right now.

Anyway I digress.

OK. Lots and lots of replies, but here is my tuppenec.

I am a local government bod, and a firm unionist. Not for ME, but for the benefits unions have bought workers in all sectors in the UK.

I am quiately annoyed by people who don't join the union at work. That said I would never discuss this view with anyone within the workplace.

That said, when you DO join a union, you do so, in my view, for richer, for poorer. I am protected in cases of grievence, discupinar and so on. So, with that protection in my view comes with the responsibility to srike when called upon. IF the union ever called a strike that I feel is for completely ungrounded reason, I would lave the union rather then not strike.

OP - its up to you. I know what I would do in your shoes, but you have do do what you feel is right. If that is work, then work, if that is leave, then leave. I do NOT agree with bully boy tactics one bit and would directly tackle anyone I saw doing this, however I do understand whn people get cross and frustrated when people don't strike.

That's sounds awful for you. But I think that's your own reaction to the work pressures. Can you not alter your mind set - realise students are an age to be difficult and let their complaints wash over you, do a bit less in terms of hours if those are getting out of hand? However if that's how you feel then of course I'm sorry that that is so. I just think that there are a lot of people a lot worse off (although they might internally not feel stressed depending on their personality).

On pay etc I do think people who are relatively in control of their working lives and have a reasonable salary such that they do h ave other options like accepting other lower paid jobs and some savings have less stress than people right at the bottom.

wook, that is right but it seems we cannot even afford those.

The issues sesem to be averaging salary over a working life rather than a final salary pension, how much employees must contribute into it etc. It seems we are not going private sector in making them money purchase which could mean they do very badly or very well depending on the markets etc and retaining final salary is something the private sector hasn't largely afforded and these new state reforms are proposing to keep it which perhaps we cannot afford. Huge amounts of each local authority and the council tax we all pay is going towards pensions.

Haven't read whole thread, however as a former union rep, while I believe strongly in the right of association, also believe that people have the right not to associate.

My personal bug bear is with people who accept the favorable negotiated terms and conditions made with a trade union with management, yet aren't union members. Fine not to be a union member, but get irritated when they accept the pay rise, for instance, but then complain about the union.

Anyway, try and take a long term view of the situation rather than losing a few days pay. There may be a contingency fund from the union for those in financial hardship.

But be upfront about your reasons, and discuss to see if the union can try and address your concerns.

Xenia; loving the leach analogy. You will soon get plenty of experience of leaches when the millionaires running the Govt finish their 'restructuring' of the NHS. I'm delighted you have such a high opinion of the blood-sucking bastards who used their belts as tourniquets after 7.7. bombs. Of course they are overpaid, surely they should do it for the joy of being sworn at/assaulted by overcharged commuters like my dp who got signed off for stress? Sadly, we couldn't afford to live near his tube station so the extra 2hrs a day commuting didn't help in that respect. Heyho, never mind, so long a the talent in the banking sector get adequately compensated, otherwise Heaven forfend - they might refuse to destroy any more banks and leave the country. How could we manage without them? So much more valuable than teaching assistants or speech therapists.

The financial services sector generates 25% of the wealth of this nation. Without it the NHS could not be supported. Bankers pay the salaries of many of us. They are the current whipping boy but that is just a current phase. It will pass.

I am a supporter of the NHS. I don't want us all to have to buy private insurance and we are a small enough nation to be able to continue with the NHS. However that doesn't mean that wages adn benefitws and pacakges didn't get out of hand under Labour and there will be corrections. Labour planned 20% cuts in general overall and the Tories 25% so there is not much to choose between them except that the former caused our near bankruptcy and the latter will seek to fix it.

Teaching assistants doctors and bankers and footballers are worth what they are paid. It's a free market. I can't play football like Beckam and I don't earn what he does and nor can I perform brain surgery.

Complainst wash over? Do less hours? real world anyone?
anyway, being the academic I am, I must point out that evidence suggests that stress is higher in employees who invest themselves more in the job and include managers and professionals who have a responsibility to other staff. (jan 2011). The highest suicide rate due to workplace stress is amongst white collar workers.

How do bankers pay the salaries of many of us any differently to any other group of workers in any industry? You could say that bus drivers pay the salaries of many of us, or oil workers, engineers, scientists, doctors, insurance salespeople, farmers, teachers, shopkeepers... we all pay taxes, we all consume and we all play a part in helping the nation to prosper. Why is anyone more dispensable or less valuable?