NEU tells teachers not to go to work on Monday

[Workyticket]

skwawkbox.org/2021/01/02/breaking-union-tells-teachers-not-to-go-to-work-on-monday/

Schools are where the virus is spreading unchecked. Teachers aren't some super-race who can withstand illnesses that bring down the rest of us. Many teachers are parents and grandparents, taking disease home and coming into contact with their own children who could be carrying disease.

Everyone who can be at home, as much out of reach as the virus(es) as they can be, should be so. Schooling isn't 'essential' in the way that healthcare is, or supermarkets are. No school? No-one dies. No-one starves.

The most vulnerable children will need provision, and hopefully someone, somewhere, is thinking about how to help them.

I am definitely in favour of closing the schools, and working towards ending this pandemic. It has to be done now. There is no time but now.

It's probably worth just considering being kind to people in that case.

Be kind to people who want unsafe working conditions for teachers?

Why?

[quote saraclara]@Flippingnightmare are you prepared to go and sit in a small unventilated room with 30 unmasked young adults or children for an hour? And then another hour with another 30, then another hour with another 30 etc etc? Then rinse and repeat five whole days a week?

Because there are people on this board going nuts about people passing them too close on a path in the park, or someone in the supermarket with their nose poking out of their mask. Yet expecting teachers to be doing the above without a second's complaint.[/quote]
I'm work for the NHS, I caught COvid at work.

I was fine though, obviously, as I'm a woman in my 30s. Even though I have quite severe asthma (was in hospital with swine flu in 2009) I didn't get any symptoms apart from loss of smell.

Which isn't a surprise, is it, since the age of death from Covid is on average HIGHEr than the average life expectancy.

I'd be happy sitting with your 30 unmasked infants, just like I willingly went into work in March when there was no PPE and everything was unknown (thanks for the claps!)

why can independent schools cope?

Where they can cope (which is not always) it's because of the normal two reasons I suspect. One, they are better funded and two, they feel in charge of their own destiny rather than a victim of faceless bureacratic forces.

noteneat20
The ones who have left don't care what you think. Five people daughter trained with are earning much higher salaries elsewhere.

@SchrodingersUnicorn

A pp asked about independent schools earlier. They can't cope and they aren't safe either. I spoke to a friend earlier who works in the independent sector. She has 25 in a class and smaller than usual classroom so it's still packed. They also have boarding houses which are breeding grounds for infection. She is terrified but it sounds like the Head has pretty much blackmailed them by implying they will lose their jobs if they don't go in and work in what they all know are unsafe conditions.

My kids go to a prep school. Two cases since September and they were in school holidays so no cases actually in school. North west.

So a blanket statement of ‘close all the schools down they are breeding grounds’ is just not true.

I’m interested in what a lot of people who think teachers need to “just get on with it” (which is, like, what we’ve been doing) do for a living. I’m a lot more inclined to humour the opinions of people working outside the home. While I’m not going to agree with anyone who’s just being spiteful and belittling for no reason, it’s actually insulting if people who are lucky enough to be able to work from home are saying this stuff.
I love my job, I am so grateful to have it and to have the job security that comes with it, but I’m not going to believe that someone who has spent this time WFH is happy to go and do my job without a second’s thought.

Be kind to people who want unsafe working conditions for teachers? Why?

Because it will make you happier and you can't change their opinions. I also disagree with you but I don't spend my time attacking you.

I was fine though, obviously, as I'm a woman in my 30s.

What about teachers who aren't?

Thanks Martini. Critical thinking rarely welcomed on MN AIBU, so I rarely come here. Just caught my eye because I think the teachers unions are a dodgy force. Bunfights and faux-offence is usually the order of the day of course here in AIBU land!

Highest case numbers ever recorded today. There will be mass death in the middle of January. Anyone who wants schools back in as they were last term on MONDAY wants their head examining.

In stitches at @notevenat20 talking about 'self-righteous exceptionalism'. Hypocrisy at its very finest.

Vik Chechi-Ribeiro, a secondary school teacher and NEU Manchester vice-president, said: “The government’s reckless plans for … reopening of primary schools risk pouring petrol on to a fire for case rates, hospital admissions and deaths. It also ignores their own advice from Sage.

Is there anyone here who disagrees with that? Whether you give a damn about teachers or not, can you not see what having all children back in school will do to the rates of infection, now that we have a variant that is infecting them far more? School will infect them, and they'll come home to infect you.

www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/02/government-faces-major-revolt-on-schools-reopening-in-england-over-covid-fears

@noblegiraffe

I was fine though, obviously, as I'm a woman in my 30s.

What about teachers who aren't?

Well if they are CEV and 70 they need to be at home, and make arrangements with the school as previously advised. But then I'd expect them not to have met anyone at christmas, not to go to supermarkets etc etc etc.

There's a sliding scale of risk, like everything else.

When I was at school a teacher in his 50s died of herpes encephalitis, there is no such thing as NO risk. Death doesn't begin and end with Covid, and Covid is here to stay.

Barbie222
Honestly, customers do not socially distance when we are on their premises.
They also will lie about isolating, positive tests etc.

They should vaccinate teaching staff.
Heathcafe staff have been vaccinated or are being.
The best way to keep schools open is to vaccinate staff - particularly vulnerable staff. I don’t understand why we aren’t doing this.

@notevenat20

Be kind to people who want unsafe working conditions for teachers? Why?

Because it will make you happier and you can't change their opinions. I also disagree with you but I don't spend my time attacking you.

So not only are teachers supposed to go into unsafe schools because the government can't be arsed to put any funding into making them safer, they should also be nice and happy about it?

Bonkers.

Highest case numbers ever recorded today. There will be mass death in the middle of January. Anyone who wants schools back in as they were last term on MONDAY wants their head examining.

There is a basic scientific question here. Will opening primary schools outside London increase the already rocketing infection rates so much that it outweighs the huge costs to children, parents, the economy and the future of the country.

My own view is, maybe. But there are serious considerations on both sides. I don't think it helps when people only discuss the downsides of one option without weighing against the downsides of the other.

@Legoteacups

They should vaccinate teaching staff. Heathcafe staff have been vaccinated or are being. The best way to keep schools open is to vaccinate staff - particularly vulnerable staff. I don’t understand why we aren’t doing this.

I agree, all teachers vaccinated next week. Anyone who refuses - no pay if they don't come in.

Sorted.

When I was at school a teacher in his 50s died of herpes encephalitis, there is no such thing as NO risk. Death doesn't begin and end with Covid, and Covid is here to stay.

Ah, you're one of those.

There are people who worked throughout 2021. What on earth do British teachers have against working?

There are people who worked throughout 2021

Hardly an achievement.

There are people who worked throughout 2021

Well it's only been 2 days...

49PinkFondantFancy

The hypocricy if teachers are willing to send their kids in to be cared for by someone if they're not willing to go onto schools themselves is staggering. 'But it's socially distanced' is a figleaf.

I'm working next week but all my children will be at home. Far from ideal but no way are they going into school at the moment.
Same within most of my colleagues. I think you have misunderstood. I don't think any teachers that are worried at the moment want their own kids at school.

@cansu

LaBStar Let's just take a few of your examples: Pharmacists - In every pharmacy I have been in everyone wears a face mask. There is a perspex screen that customers must stand behind. In my pharmacy, only two people are allowed in at a time after they have sanitised their hands and put on their face mask.

Vets: I took my cat to the vet. I had to wait in my car and phone to say I had arrived. They came out wearing masks and gloves and took my cat in by themselves. They then brought him back to me afterwards and they fed back to me on the phone.

Care workers: My adult child is in residential care. We are only allowed to see him outdoors, socially distanced and wearing a mask. No one except the regular staff are allowed in the home.

In just three of your examples, none of the above are taking the same level of risk as teachers.

To start with none of these had protection but their private sector employers increased safety because their staff were getting sick. Which isn’t great for the employer either. Teachers and other public sector staff have as much right to health and safety standards as anyone else. We can’t just say it’s ok because it’s a ‘vocation’ or we’re a bit worried that our taxes will increase to pay for it.