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.

Pension entitlement for public sector workers has been brought into the argument time and time again. And without any regard to the fact that historically, public sector workers like civil servants agreed to lower pay in return for better pensions.

Did they have lower pay though historically though?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/55089900.amp

No, not when I trained. The situation is schools is a completely different world to what I was told and what I experienced in my early career. Its only been 14 years and my job is almost unrecognisable.

A few things need addressing in this thread.

First, pay is the only issue teachers are allowed to strike about. However, I and many teachers I know are hoping that by going on strike it will also show discontent about poor working conditions.

The NEU is calling for a fully funded pay increase. This is because there has been no government funding allocated for any previous pay increases which means it has to come out of existing school budgets, which have already been cut to the bone. So to afford even a small increase in salary, cutbacks have to be made elsewhere which makes working conditions for teachers worse and impacts on the learning of pupils. To pay salaries, there have to be cutbacks in support staff or resources etc. Everything that can be cut back in schools has already been cut back. There is nothing left to give in education.

Teachers, alongside social workers, have received the lowest wage increase across ALL sectors in the last decade. There needs to be a decent salary to attract people into the profession. I'm fed up of my 12 year old doing endless cover lessons in the hall completing worksheets because the schools cannot find enough maths/science/DT teachers. There needs to be a bigger pay increase now to make up for all the years of pay freezes.

I have to ask... whenever these sorts of threads appear there was so many teachers jumping on getting very passionate. I've seen posts of teachers saying they work from 5am till 2am and no days off ever..others saying how they are using food banks...others saying about the abuse they receive daily from students and how scary the job is. Firstly I am wondering why put up with it and not just go get a different job and secondly how would a strike help?

I hope this comes across as I mean it to, a genuine question from someone keen to understand. (I am self employed so no experience in unions etc)

Nursery workers? They're not striking?

Some are, some aren’t.

The ones that are obvious are why we’re struggling to fill PGCE places. The ones that aren’t are why most teachers leave within a few years. What’s your point?

did you miss the bit about the recruitment crisis ?

@MrsHamlet ime TLRs can bump ones pay up quite a bit. Management is more shit but it's same for most industries.

This is MN, OP, so I’d be surprised if many people do support the strikes. MN is notorious for despising teachers, one of its many ironies as a parenting website.

Why does the idea of someone in a different job to you having these things make you angry?

You should have these things. All workers should. Impossible under the system and government we have but it’s the way it should be. I fully support your choice to strike if that’s what you decide to do.

As a civil servant working in a job centre I have had all the above abuse and more. But still people think civil servants are overpaid and have ‘gold plated’ pensions. I wish.

@donttellmehesalive well it’s the teachers who have decided to reject a pay offer and then strike. Tory government was never going to roll over and make a generous pay settlement.

I think the Tories have made the job of running a school unnecessarily complicated and bureaucratic with insufficient improvement in standards to justify all of that additional burden. But it is not exactly a new problem.

I am well aware of that, thanks. I know how my pay scales work.

You should have these things. All workers should. Impossible under the system and government we have but it’s the way it should be. I fully support your choice to strike if that’s what you decide to do.

But in the real world with an ageing population, low productivity we cannot have a workforce good pensions, good t&cs, good salaries without hugely increased taxes.

@WindscreenWipe my point is don't train for a job that you can't live off and then moan constantly about it an strike.
Shit pay and conditions have always been the way.
It's a vocation ( apparently)
Do it or don't

I don’t support a teacher strike

my respect for teachers lessened hugely during lockdown

I've been considering leaving for years! I have two issues:

• I'm good at my job and care an awful lot about children's education.
• I don't know what else I would be good at, all I have ever known is education - being at school, going to university, teaching at school. People say our skills are transferable but I just don't know what else to do!

There is no financial reward for staying in the classroom and being good at your job.

News to me as have been teaching 10 years and on ups and I’m not on that,
.

Pay peanuts ... get monkeys.

Why does it have to be a race to the bottom, why not invest in teaching and teachers and make it a job people want to do rather than a "vocation" as some feel it should be.

Why?
Because I love what I do.
Because it's important.
Because I'm really good at it.
Because I make a difference every day.
I don't want a different job. I just want education to be treated with respect.

And ? We’re still striking

"Sorry if that sounds grabby but to me it’s just unfair that teachers will make my kids suffer, if the government don’t allow my taxes will rise to pay them more"

I quit teaching about 5 years ago. I'm sorry but how do I make your kids suffer? I bought boxes of pens (will normally go through a box in roughly 3 weeks) and other stationary like erasers, highlighters as kids come in without equipment. I bought snacks for my tutor group during tutor time as some of them hadn't been given enough food due to being in a low income family/family not being able to afford food. I gave up countless additional hours (not paid by the way) to allow pupils to be able to work in the classroom as there was no place to work at home. I've had to deal with children coming to me crying as parents are going through a divorce, children suffering neglect and abuse, self harming. That's just to name a few situations. I supported and always did my best to be an advocate for them. And yet...I don't work enough according to you....I allow children to suffer according to you....I'm being grabby. I probably spent close to £80 a month on supplies... so damn right I support the strikes for better pay and conditions.

I looked after 'your children' to the detriment of my own. Mummy can't play, mummy can't see your nativity, mummy can't pick you up from school as I'm still at work until site staff kick me out.

Teachers have had to adapt to being not just 'teachers'. My job was to teach a subject I loved...but over the years I've become a therapist, a childminder, a protection officer; I prepare students for interviews, I perform outreach projects....shall I do your job and also parent?

As I said - impossible under the system we have.

I just honestly don’t understand the whole “x profession don’t DESERVE y” mindset. It’s mad - it always ends up being a competition of who has it the shittest as if that’s somehow a badge of honour and as if we didn’t all (mostly) choose the jobs we went into.

It's not a bloody vocation.
We are not nuns, giving up our lives in the service of god.
It's a job.