Today we strike

[Perfect28]

Aibu to ask you to support all striking workers today? Please do, however you can.

@Andformynexttrick the summer holiday is taken into account with the salaries. Basically several weeks of the holiday is not paid and the deduction spread over 12 months. So a reduced salary already covers for the "additional" holiday - a lot of which teachers work anyway!!

People in the private sector can unionise and strike. Amazon workers in the UK did this week. I support them.

Are the nurses selfish ? The rail workers, ambulance staff, paramedics, civil service, firefighters ?

They can't really though. In theory sure, but there is not the culture or the unions currently.

Anyway, we should ALL care about employee rights - private and public sector.

If you are not happy with your pay/conditions get another job
It is that simple

Absolutely simple, yes, for the person who leaves.

• One in four new teachers leave in the first three years
• One in three new teachers leave in the first five years

Or they don't like the look of the pay and conditions, so don't join in the first place. Again, super simple for those individuals! And we can see many are making that simple choice as the government has missed most of its recruitment targets.

What is not so simple for the children left in classrooms without enough teachers, or teachers not qualified in their subject.

Oh that old trope, no they can't all join unions may would be sacked. The private sector is not one homogenous group, its called safety in numbers for the public sector they get all the publicity.

Job blogs and drugs are us getting treated like shit would get zero headline news, So your going to get another job well dito.

We have huge inflation AND more and more cuts to public sector pay.
So do pay CUTS cause inflation?

The Government claim that pay rises cause inflation is obviously wrong.
The tories have progressively attacked public provision, in education, health care, transport etc and brought in privatisation and poor funding so they and their supporters can make huge profits. ( They do not use public schools or hospitals.)

It is a POLITICAL decision - to line the pockets of their supporters, share holders, non doms, corrupt Russian oligarchs, International Companies ( Amazon etc) who have no interest in the people of the UK (other than exploiting them!)

If the tax situation was not so regressive, over taxing workers who produce the wealth of this country instead of those making huge profits, we could afford proper provision.

Support the strikers - they are fighting for US ALL.

Which is exactly what's happening, but who cares if there’s no one to teach your kids eh ?

😂😂😂😂😂😂

The reason pay rises in the private sector is an inflationary pressure is because companies often fund wage rises through price increases of product or service (and rarely out of profits). Things get more expensive as a result (inflation).

This is not true in the public sector, where the services provided aren't directly paid for by the user (and are instead funded by taxation).

Id rather have teachers who are in it because they want to teach not fill their pockets.

Pay me more I`ll well a quit, well bye bye. 🖐

Rumship your reply is so illegible you are barely communicating your point. Just goes to show how important education is I guess...

If the sector I'm in had had the pay increases we should have had since 2010, even the lowest paid would be on about 10k more annually.

Those of you in the private sector who have had low or no pay increases, what base are you starting from? One per cent of a hundred grand is rather different from the same percentage of 12k, say.

Besides, it isn't just pay that people are striking about, it's terms and conditions and patient or pupil or passenger safety often due to chronic understaffing and lack of investment combined with the impact of Brexit, COVID and the Ukraine situation. I truly despair of how many folk on here and elsewhere whinge about so many services yet seem incapable of joining up the dots for the reasons why.

And yes I'm in a Union though where I currently live the union is so toothless the only way I could contribute personally was by taking the day off.

Which is bitterly ironic if you know anything about the industrial history of the area (north west).

There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis, that is the reality.

So you are saying that teachers do work more than their overall contracted hours - which are in any case much longer during term time to get the work done?

So prices will go up for everyone? That's exactly what inflation is!

Well to say I have a very well paid job and hold a first class degree, despite having dyslexia I can say, your point is 😂

You may prefer that, but the current situation proves there are not enough people who can afford to be that generous with their time.

Caring about other people's children does not pay the ever-increasing bills that teachers - like everyone else - have to pay.

A teacher who started work in 2010 and made expected progress up the pay scales has lost £64,000 in real terms since then as salaries have fallen behind inflation. As inflation rises and pay does not, this will only get worse.

I fully support everyone striking today. I’m an ex teacher so biased but I know first hand how hard teachers work and how dedicated they are the government and media just repeatedly take the piss out them. Solidarity!

I fully support educators' striking.

I think lots of attractions offering free entry for children today has undermined the strikes a bit to be honest. Lots of my friends and other school parents are delighted that they have been able to justify taking the day off and having a nice day out.

I support them but still miffed with the disruption, because I’m angry at the govt for causing the situation

@rrumship do you have anything valuable, helpful or meaningful to add? Any potential solutions?

Conversation with my 15 year old niece who came to ours this morning as her school is closed and wanted company went something like this. She only found out her school was closed at 8am this morning as teachers refused to tell the head as to whether they were striking or not.

(Obviously not word for word…)

I really don’t understand why teachers are messing me around when my GCSEs are coming up in a few months. I feel like we only just got back to school properly again after covid. My education is a joke to these selfish people. I get that everyone is struggling for money and they would all like a pay rise, but if you have told us you were striking then we could have had a plan as to what I am going to study today. They just don’t care about us. (She then burst into tears).

This is the impact on the children. Whilst I support the strikes, she really does have a point. Teaching is a specialised profession. You wouldn’t have lawyers or accountants just ditching their clients for a day without some sort of handover or notice.

I know strikes are meant to be disruptive, but the futures of these children are being impacted when they really don’t need it. I’m not talking about protecting the future of teaching (funding and working conditions are shocking), but what about the right here right now kids being used as pawns?

Why are so many private sector workers on here so determined that we all have a race to the bottom?? If you have had stagnating wages, miserable conditions etc etc then I feel sorry for you. I can both empathise with you AND fight for better conditions for myself.

Public sector wage rises leading to higher inflation has been repeatedly disproven by economists. It’s simply a lie trotted out by the rich, and swallowed by the stupid. If it was such a massive crisis, why haven’t MPs turned down their wage rises year after year after year, in order to avoid tanking the economy??

And please let’s remember that a lot of the rights and privileges enjoyed by us all (private and public sector) only exist because of unions. Holiday pay, maternity pay, sick pay… do you think the rich of the past handed these things over to the poor workers willingly?? Of course not. Unions fought for and secured them, and we all reap the benefits.