Does anyone NOT support teachers’ strikes?

[Notbeinggoadybut]

I’ve got mixed views. Support that they, as all public sector workers, need a pay rise. And schools need more funding (but the NEU hasn’t badged this as a public reason which is a mistake IMP).

But 12% is a lot when you’re on a £40k salary. The TA’s deserve 12%, the nurses and ambulance drivers with dire conditions and worse salaries deserve 12%. But not from a starting salary of £40k.

Also public services can be dire. I work in one, it can be bordering on a joke and in so many ways such a waste of money. I will be striking on the 1st of February. But I don’t think it’s right - I voted against the strike. I want a pay rise, but don’t feel like it’s right to ask for 10% and strike if I don’t get it.

When I started in 1999, I was on £16.5 and I felt rich!

That's about 28k accounting for inflation. A big issue is the cost of everything else these days.

Inflation that government & central banks created with the constant printing of fiat & devaluing our currency.

The flip side of this was money was cheap to borrow & huge asset inflation, so many could look the other way re wage stagnation. But now that has stopped & there isn't a way out.

I do it because I love it. But I don't expect to be paid less now than I was in 2010. There's only so long you can think 'oh well next year will be better' before you start feeling pissed off. Would you rather we went on strike or just left? Lots doing the latter.

Where’s op gone ?!!

40K. Is. Not. Automatic.

As has been said quite a lot on this thread.

@Basilthymerosemary and of course I know there are teachers like you who are amazingly caring. I’m not disputing that, but you are not all like that.

From what I can see, some teachers are barely covering the curriculum, not setting homework, not giving feedback, not dealing with discipline issues. Some of them drone on in class or give the impression to quote my dc “that they actually hated our class from day 1, and we aren’t sure what we did but it hasn’t got any better this term.” Some teachers have put my child off subjects they used to like. I’m battling hard to keep my dc motivated, I read the textbook material online, watch CBBC and YouTube and cover gaps in what has been taught.

I appreciate teachers will be burned out which will be affecting performance. But loads of parents are burned out too, and many of us working hard to fill in the gaps left by teachers, too.

And so the strike means another five days that we’ve got to pick up, just find it a bit galling as it’s not like we have had a lot of notice - I can’t just take time off work when I want to.

Back under her bridge?

I do not support the strikes. Where is all the money coming from for these payrises? The economy is in ruins post covid. I got a 2% payrise and have to pay £70 per day for childcare on strike days.

@Chickenly Good for you!

@Hbh17 Excellent idea, as long as you don’t mind having no public servants, or any public services, because they’ve left due to their inability to withdraw labour to improve working conditions.

The government can find money when they want to.

Rumours and half truths .......? Please elaborate!

I am a teacher and I don't agree. Anyone not in NEU won't be striking and we have to take annual leave to cover our children being off when schools shut. I always joined a non striking union because children suffer when teachers strike. The other issue is that conditions need to change, but all that seems to be shouted about is pay. I earn no where near £40k and often work long days, during holidays and weekends. The admin is insane.

Unless the government changes the workload pressure in all sectors, nothing will change. But they know they can academise all schools and then teachers will e paid much less. 🙄

From what I can see, some teachers are barely covering the curriculum, not setting homework, not giving feedback, not dealing with discipline issues. Some of them drone on in class or give the impression to quote my dc “that they actually hated our class from day 1, and we aren’t sure what we did but it hasn’t got any better this term.” Some teachers have put my child off subjects they used to like. I’m battling hard to keep my dc motivated, I read the textbook material online, watch CBBC and YouTube and cover gaps in what has been taught.

Have you raised those things with the school?

*don't agree with the strikes.

This is what I feel about nurses but for some reason nobody ever says it about them. Probably because, with the NHS being the UK's biggest employer, pretty much everyone knows a nurse.

I teach at a private school in Inner London and the starting salary is less than 40k!!

How can you take annual leave @Mollymoostoo ?

We don't get annual leave to just take...

I am a teacher and I was striking today (Scotland).

I am striking as an act of solidarity with my union and fellow teachers. Personally, I think I am fairly recompensed for the work I do (however I am in a promoted post and earn £46k). If I could choose, I would strike instead for smaller class sizes.

For me, the money is fine. The holidays are great. I love the satisfaction I get from my job.

What is not okay is:

• The verbal (and physical) abuse from students
• The increased workload that arises from maximum class sizes
• The sector's total acceptance and assumption that I'll work evenings and weekends for free.
• the fact that I can't get the minimum requirements of my role done in the allocated time.
• the all-consuming nature of the job. I have many friends who work in other sectors but they are able to turn off from their work in a way teachers cannot. There is always 'something' to be done. I routinely work until 9.30pm every night during term, when I'm at my desk at 8am.

But I can't strike about those things. So instead I stand in solidarity with my colleagues and support the strike over pay instead.

@donttellmehesalive honestly I would rather you all just stopped moaning .
Lots of people earn shit money with shit conditions.
The cost of living crisis is hitting most people hard.
Lots of people's retirement and pensions have been moved and amended.

In many ways the problems teachers face are not about money. They are about the stress and hours and hours of work once the pupils have gone home. I was a teacher for nearly 40 years and my dd and dss are senior teachers now. They go home and work till gone 10 pm most nights marking and preparing lessons and looking at the progress (or lack of it ) of many individuals. I only really know about secondary schools where you can add some abusive pupils and unsupportive parents, a lack of books and other equipment, Ofsted, league tables, curriculum changes and staff shortages. I started teaching in 1965 and loved the job. I wouldn’t go back to it now for four times the salary.

It’s really depressing to read some of the very incorrect statements on this thread that get repeated as fact without posters so much as checking. They then form an opinion on the issue based on incorrect facts.

If your attitude is that teachers who don't like the deal can just leave, you are actively supporting the destruction of the public sector.

It didn't have shit pay, shit conditions or dwindling respect when I started. I still love it and think I'm good at it. I'd like to stick around but I don't want to be worse off than I was 12 years ago. It's sad that you think people should put up with mistreatment or leave. Lots are leaving. It might not matter to you but it will matter to society if that continues.

The government can find money when they want to.

We really don't want more QE!!!

The thing is, the workload has changed. I’ve been teaching 9 years, which I’d say is probably close to average in the profession.

The amount of extra work that we now need to do is unreal. In one of my classes, 30% of my pupils have additional support needs. Every single lesson needs differentiated in several different ways (printed on different paper, simplified questions, structured answers, translated, etc) - before I had support staff who could do my photocopying for me, now I don’t. Before I had a classroom assistant who could extract a small group, now I don’t.

Behaviour issues have (understandably) increased since covid, as kids mental health is suffering. Before I could phone a member of senior leadership to assist me, now they are so busy that I rarely get an answer.

Reporting has increased. Previously I did the register each period, and completed report cards twice a year for each year group, along with a parents night per year. Now, I do tracking every single month for every kid. Parents email me, which pre covid they didn’t do. All my lessons need to go on google classroom so if anyone is absent, they can complete work if they wish. I also need to communicate with kids out with school hours, as due to covid there is now online communication. Prelims and exams have a two day turnaround time.

All these things are great! They do help. But they haven’t increased the contracted hours we work, so we do more and more for the same pay.

6 years ago, I could do my work in 35 hours. Now, I can’t. I typically work 10h/day. I’ve dropped down to part time (0.6) but I still work 30 hours. That puts my hourly pay to around £16/he, before tax.

some weeks I work more than that, too.

The exact question I’m asking of teachers, why are you complaining?

It shouldn’t be a race to the bottom, but why don’t we let the people actually AT THE BOTTOM climb get their desserts first? The measly paid TAs, nurses, ambulance workers. I think that every Tom, Dick and Harry striking undermines theirs. Especially when some of those are on salaries of £40k.

Also, can we not pretend that people aren’t attracted to teaching because of the holidays and hours? The same reason I was attracted to civil service - flexi time, holidays, maternity pay.