to ask WHY in the name of Gove are teachers striking again?

[loftyclopflop]

DD's school is closing on 1st October because they have chosen to strike. Is it over pay, pensions and conditions? Did they achieve anything by striking a couple of years ago other than massively inconveniencing a lot of parents?

I know Gove is a twat but do they really expect to change anything by taking the day off?

[AmIGoingMad]

Great post Remus!

[CreatureRetorts]

Gold plated pensions in comparison to private sector and six weeks off in the summer. Hmmm.... Sorry if that offends any teachers on this thread but that's the way the public views it

Your bosses in the private sector are laughing - you fools have been completely shafted by them. They've got fat pensions, the gap between top executive pay and the workers is growing, they have fat pensions and pay offs and bonuses while you moan at public sector pensions. They've blind sided you and you keep taking it. Fools.

[Retropear]

The police,don't get me started on them.

[itsametaphordaddy]

''The fact is neither here nor there as teachers are striking for their own gains not for the good of eduction.Drives many of my teacher friends bonkers.''

Actually the reasons for striking are varied. You have no idea why the majority of teachers are striking. I am striking for dozens of reasons.

Also the teachers' gains often are for the good of education too. Happy teachers will stay in the profession. Good teachers are more likely to stay if the conditions are better.

[morethanpotatoprints]

LadyMetroland

I'm a member of the public and I don't agree with you.
Speak for yourself thank you.

It is a difficult job and most people don't understand or comprehend half of it. I give them my full support. I couldn't do their job.

[skylerwhite]

Unions in la la land spouting baloney

Is //this baloney? Are the concerns teachers are raising about classroom sizes, workloads and SEN provision baloney?

What a shame that you value children's education so cheaply, Retropear.

[Spinkle]

I'm a burned out teacher.
I used to love my job.
Then it changed. The pressure, the ridiculous targets, big all resources, weird knee jerk decisions from Gove (twat) and teacher bashing all over the place.
My pension is pathetic.
Strike?
You betcha.

[Orangeanddemons]

I used to love my job too.

The pressure and culture of fear is unreal now

[Iwaswatchingthat]

Do you all really want your children taught by exhausted 68 year olds?

I don't.

Nor do I want to be working at that age.

The government's plan is work longer, put more in, get less out (no lump sum for me) die of exhaustion soon after you retire. More cash for them.

[Retropear]

Your pension is pathetic- seriously!

[VivaLeThrustBadger]

I'm not a teacher but I support them in their strike.

It isn't just about their pay and pensions. Saying that though why should they now have to pay more for a smaller pension.....it's not what they signed for in their contract? I do think its wrong that contracts can be changed and rewritten like this.....it makes an employment contract worthless.

They're also striking about unqualified staff been used more, bigger class sizes. All stuff which adversely affects all our children.

[Orangeanddemons]

God the thought of Y9 at 67 fills me with horror. It's bad enough ow

[Lilithmoon]

I fully support the teacher's strike for the reasons stated above.

[Serialdrinker]

A lot (not all) of teachers have effectively never left school, they've gone from school, to sixth form, to uni and then to work in a school.

There seems to be a mentality that teachers have it harder than anyone- perhaps if teachers (again not all) had some proper experience of the private sector they wouldn't feel so hard done by?

My company stopped making contributions to our company pensions around 3 years ago, it was fully accepted by staff along with pay cuts/ freezes- not what any of us signed up for but we were all realistic about the state of the uk's / worlds economy and grateful to have jobs.

Teaching is undoubtedly a hard job- I wouldn't do it- I just about like my own kids let alone anyone else's. I respect those that do it well and do it not just for the pay packet but because they are passionate about teaching our kids but I don't agree with striking at this time- not with so many out of work. When things are better and stable then yeah maybe I'd support a strike but not at the moment.

[tombliboouun]

YABU. My Dsis is a teacher. The system is totally screwed.

[CreatureRetorts]

How much pension should a teacher get then? Or anyone? Or should we all just have none

[GiraffesAndButterflies]

I support the strike action. I've lived, known and worked with a large number of teachers, and all of them put in what I would consider overly long and stressful hours compared to their pay, hours which are largely invisible and uncounted. Sure other professions/ sectors have problems too, but to my mind, it's whataboutery to claim that because some people have hard stressful jobs, therefore teachers should too.

Good luck teachers.

[eretrew]

Why are teachers moaning about having to work until their 68, all professions are having to do this, its just the natural progression of the pension age relative to life expectancy.

[ThisIsMySpareName]

I am a public sector worker and we are all facing similar issues to the teachers and have in my career worked for both central and local government.

However, I don't support strikes because they simply do not work and the only people who are affected by them are the people we work to serve, whether that be children, benefit claimants, vulnerable people or general members of the public. Our lords and masters suffer a tiny bit of inconvenience and then go ahead and implement whatever changes the strike action is against anyway, while the people who are striking get a public bashing.

I would have much more respect for the union's if instead of moving to strike action, they went for a work to rule approach. They should press for industrial action that involves people working their contracted hours and to their job descriptions.

This would never happen in Local Authorities because workers tend to enjoy the 'perks' of things like flexi-time etc too much to agree to work to rule. I appreciate that teaching is slightly different, but I would support this type of industrial action in schools, even if it meant that my child's educations suffered for a more prolonged period than one day of strike action because it is more likely to have an effect. I would also be more likely to join the union in my field if they opted for this type of action rather than strikes.

Sure, 'work to rule' would take a while, but the system would break down from the inside out, meaning that our service users / customers / patients / children would be the last to suffer, not the first and our lords and masters would back down long before it ever got to that point anyway.

[Orangeanddemons]

I had 10 years in a very tough industry. Nowhere near as hard as teaching. Doesn't even come close. And am not sure your colleagues just accepted their pay cuts or whatevers. They might not have spoken out, but I bet they sounded off at home, and because they were too scared/apathetic to say anything it was allowed to happen in the name of the economy.

[MrsMook]

The average life expectancy for a teacher retiring at 65 is 67. Retirement at 68 could be interesting... Maybe we could solve the looming shortage of classrooms by teaching kids in morgues?

The expectations on teachers are getting steadily more ridiculous and less and less connected with helping our children to learn more.

Teaching is not really about children anymore. They just mess the data patterns up for the government. Teachers are stressed because their priorities are mixed up and seem to think that the day care aspect of the job is the important bit.

Seriously though. How else can teachers make a point? There is work to rule, but that's far more detrimental.

[noblegiraffe]

thisis, teachers have been working to rule for over a year now.

[Iwaswatchingthat]

Teachers should get a good pension as they pay enough into it. My brother is a deputy head and he pays £500 a month into his. He deserves to get a decent whack out at the end.

[VivaLeThrustBadger]

I don't think a new teacher should be able to moan about having to work till 68, if that's in the terms and conditions they sign up for. But if a teacher in their 40s who was expecting to retire earlier is now told they have to work till 68 then that's wrong.