to say this to all the teachers who are striking next week

[Memoo]

As a parent I am 100 % behind you.

I really appreciate that you put your life and soul into your job and im sorry more people don't get just how hard you work for the benefit of our children.

Don't let the bastards grind you down!

Stop buying into the public vs private spin! Many, many families have parents who work in both sectors - they are experiencing a double dip. Kicked from both sides.

This is about hard working families. About people trying to do a good job in adverse circumstances, and wanti g something left for their retirement. Many public sector jobs cannot be done by 65 year olds. Or 60 year olds for that matter.

Completely behind the teachers.Haven't read whole thread,but I'm private sector.Have arranged family childcare so (public sector) DH can be on his picket line as they're out.

Lived through the Thatcher years and I haven't forgotten or forgiven.....

Am not strikiung - too many of the parents in my school's playground can't afford to feed their children now, let alone save for pensions. I don't want to rub it in that I have a job that pays me enough money to live on AND gives me a pension in retirement...

DC's teachers are probably striking, so I will pay a full day of childcare as well. I can see that in their much more affluent school the moral dilemma is slightly different for teachers and so do not condemn them for their action.

I loved reading that Norman Tebitt is going to strike!

Get on yer bike!

I back the teachers 100%. Teachers are hugely undervalued in our society.

I have an idea. How about all the private sector workers who are feeling hard done to join in with the strike? We should be all supporting each other!

ffs only got to page 6. to whoever is striking i support 100%. the gov have changed the goalposts yet again

oh and to those who are moaning about the private sector conditions getting worst and worst, what did you do about it? i'm betting you took it all lying down and was told 'you're lucky to have a job'.

RitaMorgan - the situation in care just goes to show how public sector managers protect their own staff and pensions and say stuff the rest of you.
Are you aware that the low paid independent sector care workers are working on local authority contracts with tenders usually based entirely on who will do the job cheapest!

This point about private sector workers shouldn't let themselves be walked over and stand up for their rights, gets my goat. Public sector workers can find it much easier to stand up for their rights as when they stop working people tend to notice. The industry I work in has been quietly shutting down final salary schemes for years, mucking up the retirement plans of its employees in the same way as public sector workers now complain about. Did we try and fight it, yes we did but because only a few individuals get inconvenienced by me shutting up shop there's not much impact so it never did any good, even in those firms that were unionized.

A lot of public sector workers are in a monopolistic situation so have a far greater impact by their actions. is it fair, no, not when the tax payer is being had over a barrel. Yes, public sector workers pay taxes, but effectively you are only putting back a proportion of your remuneration, the rest comes from the private sector. A few years ago My council tax bill went up by £40 per month to fund a deficit in the local govt pension scheme, I couldn't afford to make an additional contribution to my own pension but was compelled to make a contribution to someone elses, fair, I don't think so.
And as for moaning about long standing retirement plans being changed, join the real world, pension policy is always changing. When I started work my state retirement age was 60, it's now 68. I was a member of a final salary scheme now I'm not, I've no doubt that by the time I do "retire" there won't be a state pension.
I analyse pension schemes for a living, I understand the factors that you have to take into account when working out whether a scheme will pay out its liabilities, the vast majority of public schemes do not have enough in them. This country has huge debts and a deficit, there isn't some unlimited supply of cash.
So in conclusion, I don't support this strike, I don't think you will win and may be for some of you it will be Ronald Reagan and the air traffic controllers all over again.

I feel better for that, toodle-loo

Thanks OP and everyone else who's been sticking up for public service workers.

I am a primary teacher in Scotland and will be striking next Wednesday.

We have already agreed to major changes to our pay and conditions and a pay freeze as we know that the country is in dire straits at the moment. Our school budgets have gone down too and I know that I often end up buying supplies (pritt sticks, felt-tip pens, glitter, books, etc) for my class to use as there is no other way to get them. I have many friends who do the same.

My union is striking for the following reasons:

• Pension contributions would rise by about 50% a month under current proposals - approx an extra £70 a month

• Teachers would be expected to work until they are 68! Who here would like a 68 year old teacher teaching their dc?
  
  I have been teaching since I was 22 and am now in my mid thirties. There is no way that I will have the same level of enthusiasm and motivation for the job in another 35 years. Children deserve teachers who can give their best.

In Scotland, new graduates are having a really hard time getting jobs, esp in the primary sector. If teachers have to work until they're 68 that situation will only get worse and people will be put off entering the profession.

• Under current proposals our pensions would be worth approx 40% less.

It is young teachers who will be hit the worst by the changes being proposed. We have to stand up and take action for them and future generations of teachers.

Just re-read my last post, I didn't mean they are not hard done as in, sarcastically, sorry I meant they are also not treated well re pensions.

The NUT research shows that, during the lifetime of the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS), £46.4bn more has been paid into the scheme than has been paid out.

^This follows earlier reports by the National Audit Office and the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee which show that the long term costs of the TPS are already declining following earlier reforms. The long term picture contrasts sharply with the Government's arguments that the current imbalance between contributions and payments makes teachers' pensions unsustainable.

Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, the largest teachers? union, said:

"The NUT's research proves two points. First, funding public sector pensions is a complex area ? we won't allow our opponents simply to ignore those parts of the story that don't suit them. Second, it is a long term issue ? policies shouldn't be driven by short term considerations.

"There is no £46.4 billion to hand. The fact is, however, that the Government has accepted a long series of cheap loans from teachers? pension contributions before complaining about paying the pensions promised in return."^

Lord Hutton recommended (recommendation 4)

"The Government must honour in full the pension promises that have been accrued by scheme members: their accrued rights. In doing so, the Commission
recommends maintaining the final salary link for past service for current members."

but alas, the government in their wisdom have decided to ignore it - together with recommendation 6
"All public service pension schemes should regularly publish data which, as far as possible, is produced to common standards and methodologies and is then
collated centrally. This information should be of a quality that allows simple comparisons
to be made across Government, between schemes and between individual Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Funds."

other interesting notes from the report....

"1.39 Pension schemes could help public service employers to recruit and retain effective employees. In principle, providing remuneration through pensions could be more cost effective than doing so through pay,"

which might go against the poster who said they have never seen a teacher struggle to pay rent/shop; I have and very recently too...

The government are attacking us from 3 directions on pensions alone, if they had perhaps just made one change we wouldnt be so pissed off. As it is they are looking to build a nice big pot to pillage to fund the deficit. In effect an extra tax on the public sector.

Did someone actually say that they have never seen a teacher struggle to pay rent?! Ffs. Seriously, the level of ignorance is astounding. I am a teacher, I have at times been the sole supporter of my family of three. I have struggled to pay rent, we have run out of oil mid winter and the credit card was the only way to pay, we can't afford to buy a house.....on and on the list could go of things I haven't been able to afford. Oh and I shop in Aldi, not M&S.

Only MN - both the Hutton report and National Audit Office say that the TPS is entirely sustainable since the changes made in 2007 - but of course, MNers know much better.

We can say it till we are blue in the face - several posters will never listen, and would indeed be happy if teachers were on minimum wage, whoever said that a few posts back.

As for the MNer who thinks teachers are comfortably off and can shop for food in M&S - ha bloody ha! That might be the case if teaching is the second job in the household, and the salary is merely pin money. But no way can we afford to lose £200 every single month (two teachers in our house) in pension contributions that the scheme does NOT need.

chaotica yes public sector jobs are being lost too - but for budget cuts, the same reason the private sector people are losing jobs.

The government has to work its budgets similer to private sector businesses, if the money isnt there and we need to get our country back into the red then cuts must be made - is that not also for the stability of our future, the whole countries future and not just a select few?

The govt has done an excellent job of deflection attention away from the places that we should be getting the money from and have landed the issue square on the shoulders of the ordinary folk. Divide and conquer.

'The only reason we don't have the IMF prodding about in the Treasury right now is because our austerity measures are convincing the financial markets that we have a grasp of the economic situation.

Like most pieces of legislation, I'm sure there are many details in the measures that are self-defeating at a local level. The fiscal measures are painful but if we can accept that they are needed then we will not have them imposed on us from outside at greater cost at a later date.

To those striking: please bear in mind that many, many of those that you will be inconveniencing on Wednesday have significantly worse pay, conditions, and pensions than you do. You are not doing them a favour. You are expecting them to pay for your significantly better pensions while they have less to put aside for old age and harder decisions to make now.'

So said Lemondifficult.

My KS2 children understand this.

It is not nice, but we are in an unprecedented financial crisis.
Do any teachers (primary excepted) have any knowledge of maths, economics, politics or history?

Are you aware of the situation in Europe?

Or are you all entirely living in a 1970's fantasty world, with a magic porridge pot of government money?

If you do not grasp the international situation, or the current 'eurocrisis', then your are financially illiterate.

Would it be unreasonable of me to ask the private sector workers on here who are so angry to say what their jobs are?

LordLovely, I'll try again:

THE TPS IS SUSTAINABLE. SEVERAL FISCAL SOURCES HAVE SAID EXACTLY THAT. THE AGREEMENT MADE AFTER THE 2007 STATED THAT CONTRBUTIONS COULD RISE AGAIN, SHOULD AN ACTUARIAL VALUATION PROVE THIS NECESSARY. THIS WAS DUE IN 2010 - THE GOVERNMENT REFUSE TO CARRY IT OUT. WHY?

Thanks OP, that was just what I needed to read after hearing someone on the radio 1 news say something along the lines of "no one at my work is striking because we care too much about our pupils and aren't that selfish"
That's not quite what he said but close enough. He made me cross anyway, implying that we're only striking because we fancy a day off.
the day off will be nice though

That ^^

Feenie, no one wants to listen. They have someone to blame and get angry at, the government handed us to them on a plate. It's very sad. Butterflies, I am a Teacher (and proud of it).