strike

[jamdonut]

I am a TA.I am not striking today,because I don't believe it will achieve anything,although I do believe in the right to strike. But what really annoys me is the people on the news saying "why don't they strike in non- educational time?". Well....because then it wouldn't be a strike,would it? Strikes are meant to cause disruption so they are embarrassing to employers/government,precisely because it causes inconvenience to others,thus drawing attention to their cause.

Or am I being unreasonable?

Despicable ok, scab not so.

Yes Gordy scab is a fucking horrible word to use in this instance. As I'm sure you know.

I did not want to strike yesterday but did as a member of a striking union.
I work in an area of education in which staff are vulnerable to accusations of physical assaults from pupils and parents. If this were to happen to me I would expect tge support of my Union.
Therefore I give them my support when a strike is called.
Every single staff member who is a member of the GMB/UNISON/NUT was on strike in my workplace.
Am shocked by op's experience of most union members deliberately acting in opposition to the union they pay and choose to be a member of

So if you can pick and choose your strikes, can the union pick and choose whether to help you out if employer is treating you badly etc? Fair's fair.

me too cracked

why 'in this instance' ?

I can't even afford to have a fucking pension but I still lost a days pay to support my union and fight for my job/conditions and those of my colleagues union or not

Wikipedia suggest knobstick as an alternative word for scan. Is that better, Possum?

blackleg
strikebreaker

If "scab" is too much, try "blackleg" or "knobstick". There are no nice words to use to describe strikebreakers, because what they do is so reprehensible. It is made more so when that person is a member of the striking union, content to take advantage of the benefits. What they do undermines the union.

Strike breakers who won't support their fellow union members are scabs. Why is that any worse than saying their behaviour is despicable?

Cross-post:o

Did we all just google "scab"?

no I referenced the song 'the blackleg miner'

Well to be honest I joined the union a 3-4 years ago along with several others when the school went into special measures and there was a lot of crap going on. There are 15 TAs,several dinner ladies 5 office staff and the two caretakers in the same union. Only 3 people decided to strike.I'd say that doesn't make me unusual. I don't see that any of us needs to leave the union,I just don't think anyone should be pressured to go on strike .

The fact that you don't stand out as a strike breaker at your place of work does not make what you do any more acceptable. You don't need to leave the union. Unions go to some lengths to retain membership and get more people onside, i.e. not piss-taking fair-weather members, like the ones who join when "there's a lot of crap going on". I take by this you sought the protection of union membership when things were rough.

If you did not strike when the union called you out, you're a scab. You scabbed, end of.

Try standing on a picket line, which I did, losing a day's pay when you can barely afford to cover rent which I did and watching union members swan past because the union's their fire insurance. Or better still, which has happened to me, watch somebody whose personal case you have taken on cross the line because "I don't strike, I don't agree with strikes, it's too militant. By the way, HR want to meet on Tuesday at 9, I've told them you'll be there".

I'm a union official, I help negotiate pay, terms and conditions for everyone. Two days before the strike I was in an emergency pay meeting. One day before the strike I was balancing sorting the picket line with personal cases and ongoing negotiations with management. Yesterday I spent all day on the phone because a personal case went very bad very quickly. If there's "a lot of crap going on" it's me and the other union officials that deal with it. We work at home, past our bedtimes and expect to do this constantly. We do this for the members.

I'm on 18k. I was on strike and on the picket line. What's your excuse?

PossumPoo I presume that as you are horrified by the union's terrible pack mentality, you refuse all improvements in pay, terms and conditions on moral grounds. Oh, you don't? Funny that.

People pay for the service of the union with their membership fees, you dont do it out of the goodness of your heart. And so what, think you're the only one who works long hours, boo hoo.

You're an idiot if you cant afford to strike but did because you were asked to. If you did it because you fully believe in the cause stop acting like a martyr.

I belong to a non striking union and I resent the idea that people who don't strike are refusing to do so because of the loss of pay. That is not the case where I work at all. People feel unhappy about striking because it is disruptive to the children we teach and their families and on this particular occasion it would have meant cancelling a trip, planned months before and visits to the school by 4 year olds and their parents, much anticipated. I hardly think.it was selfish of our ht to keep the school open.

In the area where I work striking does nothing but create hostility and resentment towards people.

I actually agree with you possum. I paid my dues to my previous union for 20 years, they bloody well should have supported me if I'd needed them. I left because they kept calling for strike action and I was sick of feeling pressurised to do something I didn't agree with.

PossumPoo it's not martyrdom it is the correct thing to do.

The union I'm a member of deliberately keeps dues low so low paid members can join. We don't have very much money.

As for the whole "no-one asked you, no-one cares" bollocks, see how well people do without us. I'm sure that you, PossumPoo, would be desperate to listen to members sobbing down the phone for hours or solve complex personal cases. No? Don't whinge at people who do then.

Shocking, so people cannot win can they, unless they strike in your opinion? Many people don't believe that striking is the way to achieve the goal of fair pay and extra benefits, at the end of the day people are going to.have to sit down and talk about it anyway. In my opinion your strike action creates a very negative impression of our profession and therefore makes change less likely.

Unions have power because they can call on their members to take action. If they can't do that because their members don't actually respect the union then people are actually weakening the union they signed up to protect them.

I can't believe I'm actually having to explain this, but belonging to a union is not the same as taking out an insurance policy. How difficult is this to understand?

If you hate, hate, HAAATE everything about unions and their officials, there's a simple remedy. Don't sign up in the first place.

I think people don't understand what a union is ...seems odd to join something you don't get

That said I respect your right to do so. I am just fed up of being attacked because I don't happen to agree with it as a course of action.