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/

@Helene1234

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

Teachers have worked too??
Throughout lockdown looking after keyworker children and doing online classes.

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

And how will vaccinating teachers solve the rampant transmission of covid in schools that children then bring to the rest of the community?

You haven't really thought this through, have you?

I guess the question is exactly at what point will teachers deem it safe to work? Quantify it?
Back in the summer it wasn't safe, so ok we will have bubbles.
Still not safe, ok masks can be worn in communal areas
Still not safe, track and trace all positive cases and their contacts, isolate them.
Still not safe, introduce rapid testing in secondary schools

Lo and behold....still not safe

It just feels like until the entire population is vaccinated, teachers are working in full hazmat suits from with a perplex box teaching groups of no more than 5 students at at least 2 meters distance.... it won't be enough.

I'd like to know what is deemed safe to open?

• 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.*

Will the same policy apply to all other areas of work or just teachers?

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

It's a profession that still has a strong union and a work culture that no longer exists for most of us. In some sense I would be jealous except they seem so angry here.

@Flippingnightmare I'd have a vaccine in the next five minutes if I'm offered. I'm currently on this list for sometime in October though, so unfortunately your angry plan is shit.
Also, the vaccine doesn't stop transmission, so I'd still be angry about working conditions which put me at risk from taking the virus up to immunocomprmosed family. So I'd still be walking out to protect my family and the community.

Teachers are right to be pissed off. They’ve not had adequate support from the government to continue working safely.

I want my son to be able to go to school on Mon but I agree with the union in this instance. Kids were always going to be Covid super-spreaders because they can’t socially distance.

And working parents rely on teachers (especially primary) to provide not just a good learning environment for their children but also a service that essentially offers a childcare provision to enable them to go to work. We saw what happened to working parents when the schools closed in March; it was a complete shitshow trying to home-school & hold down a professional job at the same time.

So for all those having a go at teachers on this thread; perhaps have the grace to be thankful rather than accusatory.

@thetoughhaveleft

* 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.*

Will the same policy apply to all other areas of work or just teachers?

Well since other workers are working, and teachers are laying down tools, then teachers first.

I wonder how many of the 'IT ISN'T SAFE!!!' Pearl clutching teachers are planning on having the vaccine?

Back in the summer it wasn't safe, so ok we will have bubbles.
Of 250.

Still not safe, ok masks can be worn in communal areas

But classrooms inexplicably don't count as communal area.

Still not safe, track and trace all positive cases and their contacts, isolate them.

No, as most children are asymptomatic and the government insist on adult symptoms to trigger a test for children, there are lots of infected children in school not being traced or sent home

Still not safe, introduce rapid testing in secondary schools

They haven't done this.

You're right, schools still aren't safe. There are so many missed opportunities to make them safer.

@BungleandGeorge
their private employers did this BECAUSE THEY LEGALLY HAVE TO!

Not because they are nice guys.

Transmission rates do not equal death rates
This but the numerically challenged (or gleeful doom mongers) are not capable of grasping simple stats.
We keep seeing people gleefully posting case numbers increasing but the overwhelming majority of these are asymptomatic or with trivial symptoms that you wouldn’t even clock without the test.
Ridiculous hyperbole such as screeching at parents (who reasonably want their children to receive the education they are entitled to through the taxes they pay for teachers’ salaries) they those parents want to ‘kill’ teachers. And those that terrify their poor kids an guilt trip them that if they go to school they will be responsible for killing their grandparents.
I am proud to be a teacher but not so much to be in the same profession as some of the drama llamas on here.

If I were in charge I would close schools for 6 weeks now and just move the rest of the academic year forward by 6 weeks canceling the summer holiday. But I am not.

I'll have the vaccine tomorrow if offered it. Sadly, at 45 I am not being offered it, despite coming into contact with approximately 200 people a day with no PPE.

@Flippingnightmare

All the people talking about furlough, LOL furlough is for struggling sectors to retain jobs, not to pay people who can't be arsed to o in.

Can you IMAGINE if doctors and nurses had done this during the first lockdown? At least they have professional integrity.

Ahahahahaha! Oh you do crack me up.

You know that teachers aren't saying they can't be arsed and that they want to be in school. However, they deserve to work in a safe environment which schools really aren't at the moment.

Doctors and nurses have PPE etc. Teachers don't. Plus you can't socially distance it isn't possible in a class room with 30 kids ( which is more than the class room was built to accommodate).

So can I suggest that you get your head out of your arse and stop trying to blame teachers for this shit show.

@noblegiraffe

It's not a strike.

It's a section 44 walkout.

Employees have the legal right to a safe workplace and the government is breaking that law.

I’m surprised they haven’t taken action under s44 sooner

[quote Ulelia]@Flippingnightmare I'd have a vaccine in the next five minutes if I'm offered. I'm currently on this list for sometime in October though, so unfortunately your angry plan is shit.
Also, the vaccine doesn't stop transmission, so I'd still be angry about working conditions which put me at risk from taking the virus up to immunocomprmosed family. So I'd still be walking out to protect my family and the community. [/quote]
Oh Jesus. Just close schools down forever then because covid will be here forever - just like the flu - different strains every year!

So if your that bothered about having the vaccine and maybe passing it on to some one who couldn’t have it - you need to stay locked in your house love.

I wonder how many of the 'IT ISN'T SAFE!!!' Pearl clutching teachers are planning on having the vaccine?

Anti-vaxxers always assume that other people are anti-vaxxers too.

I think you should go to school and do the job that you are being paid for.

The job I am paid for is to teach classes of children in safe conditions.

Would you say to a factory worker, in an unsafe factory, that their job is to go in because it is what they have been paid for?

Would you say to a GP now working mainly online that their job is to see you in person because that is the job they are paid for?

Would you say to someone working in an office affected by Legionnaire's disease, or one where there is a dangerous build-up of carbon monoxide or chlorine?

There were a grand total of 7 cases in DDs primary school last year and 5 of those were school staff. DDs class did not close at all.

We are in a tier 4 area with 300 cases per 100,000 which is a vastly different number to London which is around 850 cases per 100,000.

Blanket school closures are not the right response in my opinion and risk detriment to the children who need to be able to interact with other similarly aged children.

Online learning is not a good solution for 6 year olds, my DD is great at tech, for a 6 yr old but she needs constant support with what to press, what to do to get to the next activity and so on.

Me and DH have to work to pay the bills and neither of us have the magical key worker status so can't get any form of support. We also have no family who can provide childcare, my parents are both deceased and in-laws are CEV.

Very good point Thunder. Unfortunately I am also getting that vibe noteven, but this is MN, so probably more angry teachers than in real life.

I thought a lot of teachers have just had enough of the gaslighting for the government.

It is clearly unsafe in schools ( in the sense that covid is easily caught and transmitted there)

Secondary and primary kids gave been the most infected age groups for months. That was before the new strain became widespread
Lots of teachers here will tell you that covid can year through schools very quickly with lots of colleagues off for weeks and some for months. It is not uncommon for a third to half of staff being off.

No one posts on Mumsnet saying working or being in hospital or working for the police is perfectly safe. You don't get the health secretary saying they are worried about the virus spreading from secondary kids to the community then a week later Boris saying covid does not spread in schools in national TV.

You also don't get the government constantly making decisions that make working in hospitals more and more risky. They did it schools when they told them to do their own contact tracing and are about to do it again by abandoning self isolation of close contacts.

We are now in a situation far worse than the first lockdown. Unlike march the measures in place right now are not reducing infection rates. Hospitals are busier than they were in April and will keep rising for 2 to 3 weeks. Against this background they insist on denying that infections in schools do not happen, not releasing or monitoring infections in them, and opening them while cases are still rising is madness.

Don't get me wrong I will go back into work next week anyway but I'm still struggling with covid myself and it is disheartening to see colleagues struggling getting ill, kids at school losing parents after taking covid home and the government pretending everything in schools is hunky dory.

@noblegiraffe

I wonder how many of the 'IT ISN'T SAFE!!!' Pearl clutching teachers are planning on having the vaccine?

Anti-vaxxers always assume that other people are anti-vaxxers too.

I've had the vaccine, at work! Even though I've already had corona, figure that one out

Such overconfidence.

@Thunderpunt bubbles don't work when staff aren't kept within them, which they can't be in most settings.
Track and trace was done by schools which had to rely on parental honesty. Shock news, didn't work.
Mass testing is by lateral flow tests which are so unreliable they're not sued anywhere else, and REPLACES isolation, so schools are now less safe than they were in November. Not to mention the new strain.

Teachers don't want hazmat suits, they want basic precautions.