Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4

Original poster

To be annoyed about this strike?

80 replies

muggglewump · 18/08/2008 18:31

The dinner ladies at my daughter's school are striking this week, I found out via my neighbour reading on big signs outside the school advising parents they need to send their DC in with a packed lunch.
I can only assume it's over pay and/or conditions but really, the first week back at school?

OP posts:

KatieDD · 18/08/2008 22:20

Hmmm I hope we won't have to endure the same months of action we had during the 80's one little boy from my school was killed because we were all sent home at lunchtime due to teachers working to rule and refusing to supervise lunchtimes, his Mum wasn't home and he was run over and killed.

My husband got a 2.5% payrise this year if he doesn't like it he can leave can't he ? The public sector have the same right don't they ?

Bubble99 · 18/08/2008 22:22

Also, and this is from my experience in the public sector - you can spend years being really average at your job, without getting sacked.

I knew (or didn't know?) nurses who had been off sick for ages whilst managing to go salsa dancing etc on full pay c/o the taxpayer.

Pressure from above? Maybe.

But not the kind of pressure that would lose you your job as it is in the private sector.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:24

Yes I will admit that conditions are good. If they weren't I very much doubt anybody would work in the public sector. But most people I know have real trouble taking their full holiday entitlement. There is also no overtime pay - only the opportunity to build up flexitime. Which is fine, except the reason you're doing all the extra hours is because you have too much work to do, so you lose all that flexitime before you can take it. It's a canny way to avoid paying overtime basically.

All I'm saying though is do spare a thought for the many many hard-working professionals in the public sector who get mightily peed off at being lumped together in the public consciousness with dinner ladies and street sweepers. I'm not saying many of them don't do a good job, but they have the likes of Unison looking out for them. When I went through job evaluation at another council recently, almost every professional was handed a very heavy pay cut - often down to Admin grades. And Unison didn't even make a comment - thanks a lot chaps.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:26

KatieDD - the problem is that for many of us, our jobs are in the public sector. Full stop. There isn't an alternative. Unless you want to sell your soul to the devil and move to London or wherever to be a "consultant".

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:27

I dunno Bubble - there are a fair few pretty crap bods in the private sector as well IME.

Bubble99 · 18/08/2008 22:30

Twinkle. I'm a Londoner.

Come and join me in hell.

I do understand what you're saying.

I just dislike the 'anyone who works for the public sector must be a hard-worker who deserves more money' thing.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:34

FWIW Bubble I agree too. I hate this annual ritual of pay offer, strike, maybe amended pay offer (I've usually got bored by then). Do you think any of us have time to strike? No surree! And if all these people are really so hard up, then they surely can't afford a day off unpaid either.

But even more I hate the image of the public sector that is always portrayed in the media, and I'm always driven to try and correct it.

Bubble99 · 18/08/2008 22:35

I agree.

Private sector tends to kick them out quicker though, IME.

The problem with the state sector, IMO, is that 'no one' ie. the taxpayer - is looking out to make sure money isn't wasted.

In my (private sector) job I deal with state sector workers who call for endless meetings when an email or ten minute phone call would suffice. And create paperwork in order, as far as I can see, to justify their jobs/salaries.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:37

Just to correct one thing though. Nobody in local government earns the minimum wage. Not dinner ladies - nobody. My problem is the relatively small gap (now even smaller) between those jobs and ones like mine which require a degree, often a postgraduate degree and years of experience.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:42

Bubble - some of the wastage in the public sector drives me wild sometimes. Yet will they pay for extra staff that are sometimes desperately needed? Will they heck!

And then get member of the public phoning up who are horrified that we get to have paid holidays at the tax payers expense! Like we're just expected to work our fingers to the bone all day, every day with no time off! And then people appear to begrudge even the smallest pay rise! It does get you down sometimes.

I for one would love pay awards by merit. It's far too easy, in some work areas, to coast along doing bare minimum. On the other hand, some of the more under-resourced departments have over-worked staff doing the work of two or three people with no recognition at all, financial or otherwise.

Twinklemegan · 18/08/2008 22:51

But then, how do you judge merit? If you miss your targets is that because you're bad at your job? Unlikely - more likely that you're stupidly overworked and even two people couldn't hit them. In the private sector it's pretty easy I should think because it's pretty much driven by money. I doubt, for example, that a poor employee would be fired unless they were losing the company money/customers. Certainly being crap at what they do on a knowledge front doesn't seem to do them any harm.

It's a very tricky one. And I'm now talking to myself in time-honoured fashion so I really must get to bed.

ja9 · 18/08/2008 23:01

haven't read whole thread, but mugglewump our council has offered to reimburse parents of children who get free school meals so they won't be out of pocket. if any of those children come to school on wed with no lunch then the school will make sure they don't go without.

hannahsaunt · 19/08/2008 09:41

I am dithering over this one. I fully support their right to strike as a concept. Accepting the consequences of the disruption is fine. However, we still don't know if our school will be closed tomorrow or not...some but not all will be affected apparently. That's irritating, not really for me because I'm still at home, but for those who have childcare issues it's a real headache. Ds2 is due to start P1 tomorrow and he's very laidback about the whole thing, but I can imagine for some children that there could be an issue - and that's unfair. I don't think it's reasonable to use small children as a bargaining tool.

RustyBear · 19/08/2008 09:52

Unison members at the school I work at were told at the time of the July strike that they didn't have to tell their employers in advance whether they were striking or not - so it's possible the schools don't actually know whether they will have the necessary staff there.

herbietea · 19/08/2008 09:58

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

RustyBear · 19/08/2008 10:02

Well, it can be done by higher percentage pay rises for lower paid workers.

In fact it has been done that way several times in the past.

And if all the council workers who don't like their pay left, you wouldn't be getting any school dinners at all, ever...

Blandmum · 19/08/2008 10:04

and it isn't just the dinner ladies, it is also the janitorial staff, and many of the support staff, like Technicians and siistants. Those I have worked with are good people, who work hard, often have lots of qualifications and do a bloody good job

The science techs I have worked with are aways prepared to go the extra mile and it is the kids who benefit from this. And they are paid peanuts. They deserve more

herbietea · 19/08/2008 10:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

mrsruffallo · 19/08/2008 10:15

YABU
Dinner ladies are not exactly paid well.

gagamama · 19/08/2008 10:16

I can't get my head around why people would go on strike upaid for a week to 'protest' over a 2.5% pay rise. By my estimation, 1 week out or 52 represents roughly 2% of their annual take-home pay anyway. It's just cutting off your nose to spite your face, surely?

mrsruffallo · 19/08/2008 10:18

No, it's sacrificing a little personal comfort for the greater good

TenaciousG · 19/08/2008 10:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

muggglewump · 19/08/2008 16:10

OK so I was being a tad unreasonable. It's a personal thing, more to do with having no notification than anything else, not to do with striking in general. It does irritate me but it's not like I'm too lazy to make DD a sarnie, it just bothers me that some kids will turn up with no lunch and I feel that's unfair especially on the first day back but again down to no notification rather than striking.
I'd kill for a dinnerlady's job but I know I'm being totaly unreasonable to think they should think themselves lucky and accept the pay just because I don't have that job.

OP posts:

TheCrackFox · 19/08/2008 16:30

It is not all council workers - just the ones that happen to be in Unison. My mum is going on strike - not because she particularly agrees with but because she fancies the day off.

I feel very sorry for the children starting P1 and this is also a nightmare for working mums.

clayre · 19/08/2008 16:34

we got a letter home in dd's bag today, dundee city council have decided to close all the schools 2morrow, poor dd only started today

Flip

1 2 3 4