re teacher's strike

[norton84]

Firstly I have no problem with teacher's striking. I have a young teacher in the family and can see where they are coming from.

However, today I found a letter in dd's book bag saying that the school may or may not be open on 30th and please can we have alternative arrangement in place just in case.
AIBU to think more notice would have been good?

Obv knew stike was possible but as school had not been in touch of course we assumed we would not be affected.

hocuspontas - I am not sure what happens if not striking. I asked Dh the same earlier what he thought. TBH for me it won't actually make that much difference to my wage anyway as I work PT, half days. So I will just leave it as a strike day I reckon. I did wonder if non striking staff had to check in somewhere or something in order to get paid.

Jollidiane, one of the alternative measures to a strike that has been mentioned is a work to rule. This would mean that teachers would only work the specific directed hours and only complete essential tasks. In reality, this would be far more disruptive to children than a strike, especially at secondary level where extra lessons for coursework catch up and revision sessions are an expected but voluntary part of the job.

Jolly - how else exactly could teachers get their point across?

Well our Head Teacher only found out today that the strike is definitely set to go ahead so maybe the Unions have only just finished counting the votes?

I find it laughable that people think that a work to rule would cause less disruption. It may well cause the parent less disruption in terms of child care, however the disruption that it would cause the child's education would be huge. Far more than a series of one day strikes which will not actually affect your childs education all that much as teachers are able to plan to cover any lessons missed from those days throughout the rest of the term. Just as they would a snow day etc.

Thanks. We didn't know if our HT was being particularly snotty in not giving us a day off with full pay!

The unions all know that it's members have voted in favor of a strike. What we are waiting for is a proper offer from the government. One that doesn't involve taking money from our pension fund to fill the deficit, effectively taxing public sector workers. Did you know for example, that the local government workers pension scheme could have no money paid into for 20 years and STILL be able to cover all of the payouts during that period. Our pension schemes do not need tax payers money to prop them up. They want to take our money to prop up the financial mess that WE (the public sector worker) didn't get the country into.

I really don't like the idea of work to rule. I want my child to carry on enjoying school. I would much rather have a 2 strikes a year. As I said before I learnt a lot from 30 November strikes so our business is much more flexible. The question teachers need to address is will this strike action make any difference to government policy?

Hocus, most (all?) HT will expect their staff to be in school if not striking. If anyone not striking has a day off on that day then they will face a disciplinary. So doctors notes needed for sickness etc.

Thats the point Jolly, we need to try, otherwise the govt will walk all over us on all sorts of issues. The strike is not just about pensions for us, it is about the erosion of our working terms and coniditions.

FontSnob and others

I think it is very poorly understood how much public sector pensions actually cost and that is what (if I were in charge of the unions) would focus on explaining to people like me.

I always have a keen eye on my costs. I could not have a situation where I did not know how much a pension cost would be in 10 years time, that is why I have a problem with the strike.

1. What will it achieve?
2. Can we afford the demands?

I hope I am not coming across as unsympathetic to you, I just want to get another view point across.

I swapped patients I saw today to Tuesday instead of Wednesay next week, as I had heard nothing from school and didn't want to be unprofessional cancelling appointments and feel bad dragging my poor MIL over to babysit unless its a true emergency.

There was a letter in the bookbag today saying the school will be shutting. I am going to take the kids out somewhere fun and feel no shame about pulling them out of school later in Dec for a religious occassion instead of sending them to practice the nativity for the hundredth time.

I didn't know that about sickness etc. I've never worked anywhere where there has been a strike so this is all new to me. Someone said that they wasn't sure if teachers could give us work to do on the strike day like cleaning out cupboards or sheds if it wasn't part of the normal weekly tasks.

Do you think that it is good for the children when such a high % of the people who are responsible for teaching them are unhappy in their jobs and have considered quitting in the last year

Half of Britain's teachers have seriously considered leaving the profession in the last 12 months, Ms Keates said, and only the terrible economy is preventing a "mass exodus."

Do you think that the profession will attract new teachers from the private sector when there are poor terms, conditions and pensions as a reward?

Start to think about the bigger picture.

We only got our confirmation today so YABU.

Jolly, our pensions are self sustainable, they need NO money adding to them from the tax payer, the givt will be using the pot to fill their deficit. HOWEVER with these changes many of us won't be able to afford to pay into our pensions, will drop out and then the pensions will colapse, costing the tax payer money to prop it up.

It's the media that needs to start reporting things as they actually are, instead of perpetuating the crap myth of gold plated pensions.

Jollydiane, we are thinking of the children. Do you really want them taught by 70 year old burnt out teachers? Or unqualified supply teachers, as the lack of decent benefits drives teachers out of the profession? My children are going through this education system, and I'd like to see it improved.

Hocus, thats the case in our school, the HT is also trying to undermine the strike by keeping the school open and asking non-striking staff to cover for the striking teachers. But thats another rant!

Lots of x posts there. What fontsnob said...we're not making 'demands', the teachers pension fund is self sufficient. It's shortfall is due to the government using the money WE PAY IN for other things.

Senior school may be on strike, normally the primary doesn't.
Working to rule is far worse, we had no extra curricular stuff at highschool for years because our teachers took working to rule as the perfect excuse not to bother

Last time the teachers went on strike the TAs in the school I work in caught up with doing displays, tidying cupboards/areas we would normally tidy during spare moments etc. You can be asked to do tasks that you would normally be expected to do. You cannot be asked to do the work of a striking colleague or to do tasks that fall outside of your contract. For example, it looks like our cleaners will be out so TAs who are not striking cannot be asked to cover the cleaners work.

if you haven't yet heard anything from your school, I would not assume that it will be open for business

No one should cover the work of a striking worker.

Startail we had no extra curricular stuff at highschool for years because our teachers took working to rule as the perfect excuse not to bother. Thats the point of a work to rule. It's not an excuse, it's what a work to rule means.

as the final union to declare that they would strike didn't until today, and Head teacher's can not ask staff if they are intending to strike or not no clear information can be given.

My school is sending out a letter tomorrow informing parents that as the number of staff who are in striking unions are in the vast majority, they can not guarantee that the number of staff that will be in school will be sufficient to meet health and safety standards and therefore will be closing to students.

We have been told as staff, that if we are not striking we are to go into work as normal (the school is only closed to students).