I totally agree with the teachers striking.
the government has been at pains to emphasise, over the last few years, how people need to be responsible about arranging their pension. For teachers, who went into teaching with the understanding (or even a contract stating??) that they would have pension security, it's massively unfair (IMO) to ahve the goalposts moved so radically.
As far as I can see, people bleat about teachers because they think they get:
- Great, child-friendly holidays and working hours
- A reasonable salary
- Job security
- A good pension
Now, I am NOT a teacher, but my mum was, all her life. I saw her work late into the night on lesson planning/ marking, so "working hours" becomes a debatable point. My dad, in the private sector, had a stressful and responsible job, but rarely worked the hours she did, even with overtime.
Her salary was far below his, despite being better qualified
Nowadays, new teachers are very very lucky to get a permanent position- most end up in "supply" where they are not paid for holidays etc, so job security has all but disappeared
And now, the final nail in the coffin, their pensions are to be drastically slashed, because the people responsible for investing the money they paid in have screwed up.
It will mean some inconvenience to me, as a working mum with my own business. But I am right behind them. This was NOT the deal they agreed to when many of them took the job in the first place. If the government are able to ride roughshod over their pension agreements, who will be next? In Britain we are too good at muttering and moaning yet letting it go. Hence the reason why we have such high costs of living etc compared to other (feistier!) countries. The government needs to see that people won't take these things lying down. The teachers strike, and people's backing of it, could make them, and other companies, think twice about renaging on people's conditions of employment, and could therefore be beneficial to us all.