Any NEU teachers not striking?

[Stardust35]

Interested to know.
I feel torn between standing in solidarity with other members over an important cause, but also knowing that I will struggle with loss of pay and also that I don't think the strike will have maximum impact without the other unions striking too.
Would be interested to hear others opinions.
Nobody has really said anything about it at my school.

I'm striking. I think most members at my school are, but we have a meeting on Tuesday so I suppose I'll find out more then.

I know quite a lot of people who say they cannot afford to lose 3 days pay in March,which I understand. I'm in a secondary sch I think our of 4 eligible to strike in the dept,two won't, one will partially and one probably fully. It conditions I wish we were striking about.

Surely "not being able to afford to strike" is the very reason why one should be striking?

I am concerned about 4 days loss of pay especially being on my own noone to make.up the extra for bills. I also will lose my ppa days due to where the days fall, so I will still have to do that work or I will be behind so its either even longer nights or ending up working anyway without the pay. Can we strike on say 2 out of 4 or is it all or nothing?

You can strike on as few or as many of the days as you choose.
Our local branch has a hardship fund that will help with the loss of pay. You just send a copy of.your payslip showing the deductions and they will make a payment. Not sure if your area has the same but it is worth enquiring.

Several of our school's NEU staff didn't vote to strike and aren't wanting to.

We were told the more people strike on the first day or two the better -I'm not sure if that meant that a strike would be less likely to occur on the 3rd & 4th day or what. They definitely made it clear that no one has to strike all of the days and that like others have said there is a hardship fund available.

6 out of 7 NEU teachers striking at my school - one says she can’t afford it. Suggested hardship fund and/or striking the first one or two.

If you don’t support your union, I think you should move to another one.

Speak to your local branch to see if you can access their hardship funds to enable you to strike.

Honestly nobody can afford to have their pay docked at the minute, but if you feel that way you shouldn't be in the neu. They're known for being one of the more militant teaching unions and if you're prepared to accept their protection or the benefits that their strike might bring then it's unethical to allow other members to suffer then consequences when you are unwilling. A weak union is no good to anybody.

I'm neu and they were fabulous during a recent restructure we had. I can barely manage to lose pay but I will be striking.

If you don’t support your union, I think you should move to another one.

Whoops. I agree.

Well that’s exactly the point - ideally not all the strikes will happen, as the government will listen after the impact of the first day or two and enter negotiations with the unions and come to an agreement, so the unions will call the strike off. If you can only afford one or two days, definitely do the first ones!

We met about it last week. They have said they won’t close classes if we do. So it seems completely pointless and we’ll just put our TAs in a terrible position. I feel so conflicted because I voted to strike, but what’s the point if school will be open and in some ways nothing will be different. What impact will it have?

I clarified this recently. TAs cannot be forced to cover for striking teachers. They can be asked but they can (and should!) say no.

Not answering your question but I'm wondering how the lowest paid rail workers are managing having already had so many days of strikes.

I know this @Forever42 but other staff members weren’t willing to put them in this position. I know this will cause our TAs huge anxiety, worrying about disciplinary or loss of pay even if that’s not the case.

Your TA’s don't have to cover classes - strike day - in fact any day....exploitation.

TA’s are (often) not qualified and definitely not paid enough to take classes.

Our TAs are mostly in unite or unison, whose advise to them has been that they should not cover for striking teachers.

SMT and staff meetings could be interesting this week as this whole situation is 'sorted' in time to hopefully give parents enough notice for covering any closures.

Short term pain for long term gain?

I can't miss this opportunity to show how awful education has become in the last few years under the Conservatives.

After much soul searching I’m not, simply because I have y11 on every one of the strike days. I’ll donate my pay for these days to the union to support others who are striking though.

@Ariautec easy to say but some TAs would hate the confrontation and will feel pressured to do so. Whilst I recognise this is for fully funded pay rises my colleagues were uncomfortable putting TAs in this position for something that wouldn’t directly benefit them. Although I completely understand that underfunded education could mean reduced TA positions.

I would rather not, but in the long term it needs to be done. It's not ideal, especially for year 11 students, but then neither is a pay rise that isn't going to be funded. Schools do not have the budget for it. The result, redundancies, bigger classes, less money for everything. The students will suffer in the long term along with the teachers who remain in a job where you are expected to give so much and then the demand increases again.

I am not a teacher but totally support strike action.How will schools communicate to parents about closures? I was reading up on it last night to try and plan childcare and all I could see is that schools might not know who is striking until the actual day as teachers don’t need to tell them (suspect most would though so that colleagues aren’t too impacted?. I think I am going to plan all potential strike days as work from home days and then I know my children will be looked after. Might even set her my own curriculum learning about workers rights!

Barnbaby my kids school have just sent an email telling us to make a backup plan as there could be last minute closures.

@BendingSpoons ah ok. We haven’t heard anything yet. Apparently someone in the class asked my daughter’s teacher today if she would be striking as they watched newsround as a class and there was a piece on strikes and she said she didn’t need to tell them 😂