I think we, Joe Public, have a responsibility to support strike action

[OverSharon]

listening to teachers say that better teacher funding will mean better quality education over time has made me ‘realise’ (shower thought epiphany) that’s true of everything.

if we support strike action, we support people being happier at work, instead of the public sector feeling like they are required to work for us whether they like it or not.

…my opinion: it’s actually all of us that are bearing the brunt of the cost of keeping inflation down. The physical and emotional cost. If we begrudge strike action, we continue to allow the government not to think of other ways to tackle inflation. If they can’t raise wages, lower our cost of living.

For me, this is a genuine topic that I think should be up for debate.

Yeah the government are a fucking shambles for allowing this to carry on like this. Could be over tomorrow. Weird that a front bench with a collective personal fortune in the billions could be dumbfounded by the idea of people needing more money

Ok, but as long as us ‘Joe Publics’ also get to vote on deciding public sector pay awards, pensions and terms and conditions etc.

Recently it feels like everybody expects, without asking first. But the public sector are asking. I support that act. I don’t know how to lower inflation, but my lay brain says that’s the answer and I’d like to hear a more educated approach.

Bearing in mind I can use ‘big words’. So that’s not what I mean by educated. I want to hear the financial science.

How would you see that coming about

I don't support the strikes.
I won't get behind them.

But I’m interested to know WHY

How would you make that happen, if you had to?

Agree with this

Well said, OP

How would you poll the public if it were up to you? A referendum maybe? 🤔

We are all going to be supporting it through our taxes.

So do you think that wages will rise to meet inflation eventually and we are just delaying the inevitable?

Every survey shows that the public support the strikers. The only ones that don't are the media, the politicians and the surveys paid for by either or both of them.

The current government has siphoned off billions of pounds to their mates. They are completely and utterly corrupt (and that's not even getting started on Boris' funding from Russia and Rishi's Moderna hedge fund). I'd much rather billions of pounds went to public service workers to ensure everyone can be safer and healthier, better cared for and better taught, than billions of pounds going to Russian oligarchs, Tory funders, MP's pals and media billionaires.

Maybe we could organise a Mumsnet March to show our support? Like the women's march but we actually know what female means.

instead of the public sector feeling like they are required to work for us whether they like it or not.

What does this mean?

I spent ten years in the public sector and didn’t feel I had to work there whether I liked it or not. I was far better paid than in my previous job in the private sector, had more holiday, big pension contributions, plenty of perks. No one made me work there.

YABVU

Inflation by it's very nature can become a viscous cycle fuelled by large pay increases and ever inflating prices. Nobody really wins! Those that get the pay rises don't really benefit as prices have a tendency to rise inline with pay increases and those that aren't in a position to strike and demand extra pay will see their buying power decrease even further.

Striking is essentially bullying the country through withdrawing essential services. These services are normally relied on most heavily by the vulnerable (children, the sick and elderly). The squeaky wheel should not always be the one to get the oil and we as a country aren't exactly rolling in it right now.

Who do you think is going to fund all of these pay rises and where is the money going to come from? None of the public services have an excess of money and the demand on our welfare state and health services is ever growing. The tax burden on the population is at a shockingly high level and the cost of living crisis is affecting us all.

You do. The government voted in as a result of a general election has oversight of all of those things and makes changes in line with their ideological outlook. For example, 8-9 years ago, the Tory-led government made a change to teacher pensions meaning that teachers had to increase their contributions, work for longer before claiming and get a decreased pension rate. This was despite the IFS stating that the teacher pension service, in it's previous model, was self-funding and would be for the next 40 to 50 years.

@SuckingDownDarjeeling who knows. A whole different system of government based on direct democracy, regular snap polls? It's not that more unrealistic than expecting the whole public to support endless strikes.

Well, I think you’ve stumbled upon my point actually. People ‘poll’ that they support it, but when I jumped on to the site, the discussions did not reflect that at all!

I do like the idea of organising a way to show support. Placing the pressure back on the government, respectfully.

I don’t think it’s unrealistic. I think it’s important to back up opinion with a suggestion for action, that’s all. It shows we are invested in changing what’s wrong.

I do support strike action. After ten + years of Tory incompetence, you’d have to be bonkers to look at all the industries that are striking and still refuse to lay the blame where it belongs.

Political parties pay people to post. It's difficult to have a genuine discussion about schools, Scottish independence, public services or strikes on here. You need to read through and around the 'campaigners'.

You also shouldn't get confused into thinking social media is representative. It's just as big a business as the rest of the media, and as such has its own vested interests.

Plus not everyone is on social media - about 1 in 5 don't have access to it - so it doesn't represent the full views of the general public. Hence why the media and pollsters were surprised by the outcomes of most recent votes and why the recent spate of gerrymandering (sorry now it's through id cards) has started. In the hopes of weeding out surprising votes from the public.

We have seen what a populist style of government gets us: that's part of what's led us here. Just because an idea is popular, doesn't make it right.