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/

@notevenat20

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.

What about all the single parent families that work full time? Should they just give their jobs up, lose their homes, go food banks?

I've had the vaccine, at work!

So what you're saying is that efforts have been made to keep you safe at work yet here you are on a thread being a dick about people who are being denied even basic safety measures?

Wow.

@SaltyAF

Teaching is also, a vocation.

Bullshit. Not any more, it isn't. I lost my vocation somewhere in all the vitriol but I can't afford to leave , so I won't.

LucyLastik

Suspension of curriculum was the government miss management. The fact that some schools decided to provide no education or contact was miss management from those schools.

Plenty of schools worked hard during lockdown to provide what they could for their students. What your talking about is a different argument. None of it is down to individual teachers anyway. So can't work out why people are blaming teachers.

@noblegiraffe

I've had the vaccine, at work!

So what you're saying is that efforts have been made to keep you safe at work yet here you are on a thread being a dick about people who are being denied even basic safety measures?

Wow.

I had the vaccine 2 weeks ago, 9 months after first going onto a corona ward.

And I',m saying teachers should be vaccinated too, although you called me an antivaxxer.

Maybe lay off the day drinking?

Seasalt I'm liking it, feisty style .

NO teachers in my son's massive secondary school have ever been diagnosed with covid, about 4 pupils out of 2,000. We were tier 2 though, now tier 4 ...

@Seasaltyhair

What is it? Lockdown fatigue

Or some people figuring out it wasn’t the apocalypse after all? Transmission rates do not equal death rates.

They will soon if there are no hospital beds for those that have been affected by raised transmission numbers. If patients can’t be treated then death rates will start to rise.

I’m willing to go into work if it doesn’t cause the overwhelming of our hospitals. I fail to see how the Government can be so confident about that already by 4th January when it has only just panicked itself into creating more tier 4 areas and u-turned from suing schools that know their localities better than it does to agreeing to close all London primaries to all but the vast quantities of key workers’ and vulnerable children. And I’m still flummoxed as to why Tunbridge Wells is on the list of areas where primaries will be closed, when so many other nearby areas have higher rates but their schools remain open. Is there any logic to DfE decisions, or does it depend where people working in the DfE live?!

@DuchessofDerbyshire

why can independent schools cope?

And it's not about having smaller classes- some have classes up to 20 or more.

Sorry but teachers are not unique, The NHS staff can't walk out, supermarket staff can't walk out, paramedics can't go on strike.

They ought to try to find a way round it because unless they vaccinate all teachers and TAs etc it's going to be months before it's 'safe'.

Because they are able to make the most of their autonomy and make decisions for themselves and not have to do what the fuckwits at the DfE tell them.

What about all the single parent families that work full time? Should they just give their jobs up, lose their homes, go food banks?

They need to be supported financially while the schools are shut.

And I',m saying teachers should be vaccinated too

"I wonder how many of the 'IT ISN'T SAFE!!!' Pearl clutching teachers are planning on having the vaccine?" is a bit nobbish, don't you think?

It's good that teachers are being responsible here. I support them 100% as do all parents I know. They're protecting themselves but also our children too.

If they go back as was, there will soon be school closures because too many staff will be sick and they won't be able to open safely - and that may affect key workers children too.

If only the government had listened to the science about safe school opening back in July/August and invested in schools. It was their lack of support to schools that caused this.

Meanwhile, anyone know what the profit of Serco this year has been? Enough to fund school safety I bet.

*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*

^ Spot on post. I think the unions demanding closure of schools regularly almost from day 1 says alot.

A working culture that doesn't exist for most of you? My working day involves getting up at 6, working at work until 6 and then working again in the evening when I get home. Fairly typical for many jobs, so I’m unsure what is so different.

What about all the single parent families that work full time? Should they just give their jobs up, lose their homes, go food banks?

What about the single parent families where the parent works in schools? Should they risk their child being orphaned?

As I have mentioned in other threads, all schools will be shut soon so this argument is slightly pointless.

[quote Ulelia]@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.[/quote]
And what are these basic precautions you want? Because I've yet to see a solution that meets with approval of the teachers on MN

Schools are no more unsafe then supermarkets. It’s a good job that supermarket staff didn’t refuse to work. Absolutely ridiculous!! Covid has become a rampant madness that’s stopping people having common sense!

@Seasaltyhair

What is it? Lockdown fatigue

Or some people figuring out it wasn’t the apocalypse after all? Transmission rates do not equal death rates.

Transmission rates don't increase death rate as a percentage.

But they do increase it in time. More transmission qualms more severe illness at once and an overwhelmed nhs.

That in turn leads to higher death - whether from covid or other illness/accident.

@Seasaltyhair and @Flippingnightmare it doesn't actually apply to me but I'd be in as soon as masks are compulsory to all over 6s except in real exceptions, rooms are heated appropriately for them to also be well ventilated, and track and trace applies to school children in the same way it does everywhere else, but magically not in schools. Those are deciding which could be made by Monday.

@LaBStar

You have no possible way of knowing that.

@cantkeepawayforever

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?

Tbh I had a big issue with GP working online.

My GP regularly smokes in the car park behind his surgery, looks over 60 so was probably shitting himself. He didn’t return to work till October.

Meanwhile my 88 year old grandmother who had an infection in both eyes couldn’t work the bloody iPad that we gave her so she could speak to him online through a ridiculous video chat. He wanted to see what her eyes looked like. She was told to get the bus 8 miles to the nearest walk in clinic at the hospital by the receptionist when she called to say she couldn’t do the video chat.

Piss poor.

And what are these basic precautions you want? Because I've yet to see a solution that meets with approval of the teachers on MN

You haven't been paying attention have you?

What about the single parent families where the parent works in schools? Should they risk their child being orphaned?

I think you missed my suggestion which was to close all schools for 6 weeks now and cancel the summer holiday.

I'm getting increasingly concerned about the lack of response. Surely they have to do or say something or it will staff not going in and parents keeping their kids at home?

Schools are no more unsafe then supermarkets

And you, of course, have the data to show that supermarket workers spend hours a day in the company of the most infected subset of the population with no masks and no social distancing?