Don't want to join the teaching strike

[SweetRascal]

I'm a primary school teacher of 12 years and with the NEU. For my own reasons, I don't want to vote yes to striking but will this be judged negatively by other teachers? I just don't feel comfortable with the disruption it causes.

Union - the clue is in the name. If you are in a union that has held a vote and the majority vote to strike, you follow that majority vote if you have any decency. If you can't do that, join a non striking union or get your legal indemnity by other means, if you simply don't care about what unions are for.

If I worked with people who decided not to follow a majority union vote but expected the benefits of that union I'd have nothing but contempt for them.

Oh, that's fine then. 🙄

@cardibach I completely agree the NHS is on its knees and fair pay will aid recruitment and retention. But I believe there are safer ways to do this. The NHS runs on goodwill. Working to rule would have a similar effect. I think it’s best to agree to disagree on this one.

Me too. It’s all appropriately emotive at present though. I’ll be supporting your strike ✊

@caringcarer that is crossing a picket line. It wasn't a physical act, but it was crossing one regardless.

People who aren't willing to strike should join a non striking union, it really should be that clear. People shouldn't stay in a union for the benefits when they aren't prepared to do the hard work.

If you don't want to take collective action to improve pay and conditions it seems strange to join a union. That's what they were invented for. There are plenty of insurance options if you just want peace of mind regarding litigation or malicious allegations by students.

Will you accept the pay rise that the strike achieves?

People do remember though, I went to lovely guys funeral who I worked with 20 years ago a couple of weeks ago.lots of the old team where there from a big office. We were trying to remember who one bloke was and were struggling when someone said "you remember he crossed the picket line in 2001." We all immediately remembered who he was on that fact alone. And not in a good way!

Quite.

It's a secret ballot. Nobody will know how you voted. Vote your own personal convictions and try not to worry.

It’s fascinating (not really) that of all the people here saying striking is wrong, they won’t strike, it’s bullying to judge them for strike breaking etc precisely none have answered the frequently asked questions as to whether they’ll accept the benefits won through strike action. Hmmm. How odd.

No one will know how someone voted but they'll be aware of a fellow union member who undermined a majority union decision to strike, and will probably judge accordingly.

Will they? Isn't union membership confidential?

Yes our rep insists we wear masks to our lunchtime branch meetings, it's very cloak and dagger!

I'm not sure it's as straightforward as people are pretending to not take a union negotiated pay rise. It would be a lot of admin for the school and possibly leave them open to legal challenges. Easier to donate it to charity if you feel it's unethical to take it.

Also, if you join a union for the indemnity insurance (which is considerably more expensive to arrange privately) you've done nothing wrong. It's not like you sign a contract guaranteeing you'll strike - what's the point of even having a ballot if only one answer is acceptable?

I would be really unimpressed if my students succumbed to going with the herd without thinking carefully about the issues themselves.

The NEU behaved awfully over the "merger" with ATL. They were also happy to take the money of teachers from grammars and independents while slagging them off in their magazine.

If you have workplace union meetings you know who your colleagues are.

I think this must be very workplace dependent. I've never taught anywhere that had union meetings and don't/wouldn't have had any idea if colleagues belonged to a union, which one, or if there was even a union rep.

If I had an employment problem I'd ring the union but the only time I really needed proper advice I ended up paying an employment lawyer.

I definitely wouldn't be relying on a volunteer colleague - not fair to them or me.

Agree with pp - never had a union meeting. Doubt they happen in many primaries.

That’s exactly the point @Phineyj
theyll take the benefits because it’s impossible not to. But they won’t lose pay and they’ll tell themselves they are better people because they didn’t ‘let down the kids’ or the patients or whatever. It’s hypocrisy. It doesn’t make them look like the martyred angels they think it does.

And as for the more expensive indemnity insurance @Phineyj - that’s it, isn’t it? They’ll take the cheap insurance and any benefits the union negotiate but aren’t prepared to actually help out. It’s very, very poor.

Sorry to do this in 3 @Phineyj but - ‘going with the herd’. No. You think it our yourself and vote, then you abide by the majority decision. It’s democracy, nit following the herd. What nonsense.

I am not a political union member (I belong to Edapt - they've been good).

I did give up a lot of time last year negotiating on behalf of colleagues in an employment dispute but I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do, not because I'm a union rep (we won by the way - the NEU were useless though!)

I respect colleagues' rights to have different views and priorities to me.

And union membership isn't free! NEU etc cost more than Edapt precisely because you're contributing to their political fund.

I don't know if colleagues are always aware of that.

The NEU is not affiliated to any political party.

As I've said some people had no choice.

I grew up in the middle of it - people were starving, some made homeless, some suicides.

Some were beaten up, windows put through, running the gauntlet of the buses being attacked, shit smeared everywhere.

None of that was the fault of desperate people trying to feed their kids. It was the criminal actions of some thug strikers.

I would never judge anyone who chooses not to strike but I would bloody well judge anyone who bullies them because of that choice.