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/

rothbury I work loads of extra hours for no more pay. WFH I never get to stop. Once the dc are off this gets even harder. I can't escape work in holiday time because people know I'm in the UK and available. I am a physical wreck. When i work all the time I get very painful back and neck despite having a good work set up in my home office. Now sports centres are closed I can't swim to alleviate the constant pain. I often cant walk. I enjoy my work but it takes its toll. It's life you have to put up with some downsides. I consider myself very very fortunate to have a job. My work could be making redundancies this year dependent on brexit and pandemic impact. As I work hard hopefully I will keep my job and I try not to worry.

Everyone faces challenges. I think teaching unions have this rhetoric of how hard it is for school staff that their situation is uniquely awful which is out of kilter with reality.

[quote Flippingnightmare]@justgeton

Having NHS healthcare experience means nothing in the face of mumsnetters who have been reading facebook it seems[/quote]
Not necessarily.

I know an infection control nurse purely on the basis our children attend the same club.

She thinks schools should shut.

Nope. I don't know anyone who works loads of extra hours for no pay.

Then you don't know anybody. My university lecturer friends have worked hundreds of extra hours to make online versions of their degrees using equipment they had to buy themselves. That's the real world of work during covid.

justgeton

Maybe

But the fact that I'm a reasonable person with a wealth of healthcare/infection control/public health experience matters not?

I am also a reasonable person, a qualified engineer, I have designed, bridges, buildings, flow systems and drive trains.
I am now a teacher and have a wealth of experience in education.

Does that mean I am qualified to say how you should run a hospital?

I, like you, could no doubt have some relevant input into various aspects of the subject. But neither of us knows enough to start saying the the other is wrong in our field of employment.

@ZenNudist

rothbury I work loads of extra hours for no more pay. WFH I never get to stop. Once the dc are off this gets even harder. I can't escape work in holiday time because people know I'm in the UK and available. I am a physical wreck. When i work all the time I get very painful back and neck despite having a good work set up in my home office. Now sports centres are closed I can't swim to alleviate the constant pain. I often cant walk. I enjoy my work but it takes its toll. It's life you have to put up with some downsides. I consider myself very very fortunate to have a job. My work could be making redundancies this year dependent on brexit and pandemic impact. As I work hard hopefully I will keep my job and I try not to worry.

Everyone faces challenges. I think teaching unions have this rhetoric of how hard it is for school staff that their situation is uniquely awful which is out of kilter with reality.

Then campaign for better working conditions in your job.

It is not a race to the bottom.

Does your profession face a recruitment and retention crisis similar to teaching?

@ZenNudist

rothbury I work loads of extra hours for no more pay. WFH I never get to stop. Once the dc are off this gets even harder. I can't escape work in holiday time because people know I'm in the UK and available. I am a physical wreck. When i work all the time I get very painful back and neck despite having a good work set up in my home office. Now sports centres are closed I can't swim to alleviate the constant pain. I often cant walk. I enjoy my work but it takes its toll. It's life you have to put up with some downsides. I consider myself very very fortunate to have a job. My work could be making redundancies this year dependent on brexit and pandemic impact. As I work hard hopefully I will keep my job and I try not to worry.

Everyone faces challenges. I think teaching unions have this rhetoric of how hard it is for school staff that their situation is uniquely awful which is out of kilter with reality.

You work from home.

Ok, so from tomorrow your setup has changed. You can no longer work solo, you have to work with people who have no social graces, who cough and sneeze without a tissue, wipe their noses all over their sleeves and lick things that they happen to find interesting. Now take 30 of those people and cram them into a room that's probably the size of your lounge and dining room combined. Now you have to place your desk in the middle of it. Keep your windows closed and don't wear a mask in case it upsets them.

Enjoy your new working environment. It's fine though because you say it's life 'and you have to put up with some downsides'.

Sorry to say this, @justgeton, but I sincerely hope you're not part of any medical team I might meet if I'm unfortunate enough to need medical care any time soon.
I'd prefer to be treated (if I'm lucky enough to actually get to see someone face-to-face) by someone with enough empathy to see other people's situations.

@FrippEnos
👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Couldn’t agree more.

@notevenat20

Nope. I don't know anyone who works loads of extra hours for no pay.

Then you don't know anybody. My university lecturer friends have worked hundreds of extra hours to make online versions of their degrees using equipment they had to buy themselves. That's the real world of work during covid.

And I supported the UCU when they went on strike. Could they not extend some solidarity back?

Then you don't know anybody. My university lecturer friends have worked hundreds of extra hours to make online versions of their degrees using equipment they had to buy themselves. That's the real world of work during covid(

Then they are fools to themselves and need a better union.

@justgeton I hear the wrong arguments - Maybe you're just not listening. Here's some of mine from the last two days:

We have a new strain which means that even with schools closed, it's not certain that will stop the virus spreading.

We have hospitals that are stretched to capacity and cannot cope with much further increase.

If schools remain open as long as possible and close chaotically, there will be no provision for the children of the other keyworkers.

The new variant means this is no longer about children and teacher safety, this is about maintaining a functioning society.

At this point, I don't think it's really about whether teachers get vaccinated or not.

If students are not vaccinated, then we are going to have exponential spread when they take this new, much more contagious variant back to their families. The important thing isn't about protecting a single group of people, the important thing is about limiting spread as a whole and ensuring that we are not overwhelmed by the number of seriously ill and dying.

Sure, you can vaccinate teachers, but you cannot limit the virus to circulating only amongst students.

Then you don't know anybody. My university lecturer friends have worked hundreds of extra hours to make online versions of their degrees using equipment they had to buy themselves. That's the real world of work during covid.

Hilarious. I am a University Lecturer at a RG Uni

We don't get paid, we don't work. Our Union (UCU) is very helpful. You sound stupid saying things like "you don't know anyone." We don't all have to agree and we all have different experiences, but some of your comments are really silly and childish.

I have no words but I hope whatever the outcome it stops the bitching and the moaning.

@justgeton Teachers have “made a case” for needing PPE, as I said before, for months. It’s always shouted down. I also don’t see how, in an environment which hits a lot of the boxes for high transmission rates, anyone could think PPE wouldn’t help. If you believed that then there would be no point in having PPE anywhere (like masks in shops). The fact is that some people don’t want to hear it, and I really don’t know why.

@CallmeAngelina
Sorry to say this, @justgeton, but I sincerely hope you're not part of any medical team I might meet if I'm unfortunate enough to need medical care any time soon. I'd prefer to be treated (if I'm lucky enough to actually get to see someone face-to-face) by someone with enough empathy to see other people's situations.
Totally agree @callme, but don’t worry, we’re ok as apparently she’s retired so not even having to work. She can sit at home safely, spouting rubbish from her keyboard.

You'd have far more support if you campaigned for PPE

FACEPALM

What do you think that teachers and their unions have been doing since March?! Jeeeze.

You only hear what is being campaigned for when it hits the news. Apparently only calls for schools to close gets the media's attention.

And it's the children that need to be masked as much as (or more than) the teachers. Most masks aren't protective of the wearer. They protect the people around them - so the children would be protecting their classmates and the teacher if they wear them in lessons.

I don't think I know anyone who regularly works for free either, other than my teacher friend, and that was pre covid. Why would you? Unless you were really struggling to meet your targets and had been over promoted?

I absolutely agree that anyone who doesn't feel safe at work should be able to stay away until it is made safe, regardless of what that job is. It actually doesn't matter what any of us think though, because this is the law in the UK.

So if you disagree with the law, you need to accept that it's absolutely nothing to do with trade unions.

I’m a university lecturer and I am definitely working more hours to teach online. It’s been really stressful. My students have an mcq exam in 3 weeks, face to face. Now it looks like I may need to rewrite the whole assessment. Which we had to do for all exams last summer.

I’m running online weekly drop in sessions for pastoral support, including evening sessions. Some stuff still has to be taught face to face and I can only teach half the cohort at a time due to distancing, etc so I have to do every face to face session twice.

I have an annual salary, not an hourly one. And also didn’t get my annual contracted move up the salary scale so am down £1500 a year on what I should be. Seeing as ive got ten years to go before I’m at the top of the scale this equates to a loss of £15,000 as every year for the next ten years I’ll earn £1500 less than what I should be doing.

I’m just plodding on. I care about my students. I’m trying to make it as ok for them as it can be.

Plenty of posters on mumsnet did not want teachers to have PPE in the spring/summer as that meant things were not getting back to normal and school had to be normal for their dcs

And they definitely didn't want their kids to have to wear a mask. That's just child abuse.

I hope everyone remembers that all schools had some magical invisible covid repellant wall around them back in summer and the start of the autumn term.

@noblegiraffe oh yes I forgot all those child abuse allegations

I wish they’d just vaccinate teachers first before anyone else. We are failing a whole generation.

I agree - let's prioritize vaccinate teachers and parents with the goal of a functioning society

@bluebeck

I don't think I know anyone who regularly works for free either, other than my teacher friend, and that was pre covid. Why would you? Unless you were really struggling to meet your targets and had been over promoted?

I absolutely agree that anyone who doesn't feel safe at work should be able to stay away until it is made safe, regardless of what that job is. It actually doesn't matter what any of us think though, because this is the law in the UK.

So if you disagree with the law, you need to accept that it's absolutely nothing to do with trade unions.

Doctors and nurses have been going to work for the entire time in 'unsafe' conditions. So have health care assistants, care home workers, policemen, supermarket workers.

What do you think would happen if everyone in the UK tomorrow decided it was too unsafe to go to work? I think the NEU are being unbelievably reckless, it sets a precent for anyone to ow tools at any time if they feel 'unsafe'. I've felt very unsafe working in A&E on a friday night surrounded by drunks, but if I didn't turn up top work people would die. Should care home workers let elderly frail people ie in bed because it's unsafe to go in?

What is truly shocking is how many teachers seem to think teaching and the education of children is an optional frivolity.

Teachers are the only profession unprofessional enough to do this, and I think they have damaged their reputation for years to come.

@bluebeck

I don't think I know anyone who regularly works for free either, other than my teacher friend, and that was pre covid. Why would you? Unless you were really struggling to meet your targets and had been over promoted?

I absolutely agree that anyone who doesn't feel safe at work should be able to stay away until it is made safe, regardless of what that job is. It actually doesn't matter what any of us think though, because this is the law in the UK.

So if you disagree with the law, you need to accept that it's absolutely nothing to do with trade unions.

To be fair, I think a lot of the HSE legislation is down to unions, actually.