Teachers to strike - 30 June

[meditrina]

breaking now on SKY

Overwhelming vote by 2 teachers' unions (92%)

Betsy can I make quite clear that I am not a teacher who spends her life moaning, there are people on here who know my IRL and can testify that I am actually one of the least whingy people you will ever meet. I adore my job.

This thread is asking why teachers are angry about pensions so I am explaining that.

'If I am going to have to work into my old age I am going to choose something easier.'

Banker, can I be a banker?
Or a firefighter, at least you will have decent eyecandy and time to get fit.

Twinkly pearls you are talking as if all of this is certain when in fact no proposals have been put forward.
All of this is based on scare stories from the unions and supposition in the press.

Goblin I posted on the other thread that I do not think we will get publlic support. I teach in a school that has a lot of parental support. I live in my school catchment and am always meeting parents who are always positive with me. I feel respected for my job. However since Friday had 3 quite tense conversations with people who are furious about the strike.

One of the reasons I changed unions so I would not be called out on strike is that I feel the strike will achieve nothing. All we will do is make the kids we teach lose a day of teaching and previously supportive parents will turn on us.

As I said I love my job but this is a dark era we are entering for teachers.

Yes, we should trust the goodwill and intentions of the Condems. Or any government. They have everyone's best interests at heart, the poor and disabled and rich and all God's Little Children.

I know it is just proposals, which is why I changed unions as I wanted more information and perhaps more certainty before placing my vote.

I have to consider what I will do though, as I said I am the major wage earner.

It seems the strike ballot had a low turn out 30 - 40% so the support is not resounding even from teachers themselves.

Lego this was perhaps prior to Gordon Brown's raid on private pensions:

"On Budget Day, 3 July 1997, Mr Brown axed the tax relief, a move which slashed the income of Britain's 20 million pension savers".

I think this problem has become a major problem because previously public sector workers did receive lower pay and conditions however people knew that they would get a good pension. Today however it is the opposite, public sector pay, under the Labour government, overtook the private sector and they retained their pensions as well. To this they added all the 'perks' that have long since gone in the private sector - top hotels, biscuits (I jest not), team building days. Now these may not apply to teachers however I do think the public now see the public sector as a whole. We don't look necessarily at individual groups and what they do. However I will repeat that to me, teachers have never done themselves any favours, alwasy moaning but never doing anything about the falling standards, so you have lost a lot of the public support you may have had.

I live and work in a very nice area too, with mostly supportive parents.
I don't see that as a general pattern nationally. The supportive bit.
People are supportive until inconvenienced.

Rainbows could you perhaps clarify what exactly you mean by 'falling standards' that we have 'done nothing about'?

iloverainbows I will repeat I am not always moaning, in real life I am so positive it is bloody sickening. I have in the past worked more days than I am paid for because I love my job so much.

Public sector pay overtook private sector because much of the low paid work in the public sector has been tendered out. Most public sector workers are not professionals.

I spend my life trying to raise standards, as do most teachers.

With all due respect Goblin the phrase 'yes I'll become a banker' is part of the problem with teachers. Whilst I am sure some teachers with good degrees could have become bankers the majority could not, nor could they become accountants, lawyers etc. Infact I think that many teachers go into teaching as a last resort. Before I get flamed, I have friends and family that have told me this.

I've missed out on my share of top hotels and nice biscuits.
Can they be back-dated?

At least the roads will be quieter!

iloverainbows I became a teacher because I wanted to. I have an excellent degree from a top university. I really really did not want to become a teacher just because I could not think of anything else to do so I actually spenttime working in the private sector before going into teaching,to ensure it was the case.

I can safely say that I will not become a banker though.

God I missed the hotels bit and we buy our own biscuits.

twinkly - not sure why you think my moaning comment was aimed at you - it wasn't aimed at anyone in particular & was "tongue-in-cheek" in any case (the only "moaning" DB & DSIL do is about some parents who think they only work 9-3:30 & have 15 weeks holiday a year.)

I know teachers are upset/angry/whatever-emotion-you-want about the proposed changes - I wasn't particularly jumping for joy when I had to more than double my contributions to my private sector scheme (final salary scheme which has been closed to all new starters for 8? years now) but the reality is that the tax payers wouldn't bail out our scheme if it ran out of money so we didn't have a choice really. (I still worry if it will run out or money before I get to draw my pension!)

I'm not sure I understand why public sector workers expect the taxpayer to bail out their under-funded schemes by pumping more & more money in? Simple fact is that we are living longer & the "maths" that worked when these schemes were set up no longer provides enough funding. Something has to give.

I don't want to upset parents and I know axstrikecwill not be supported. BUT I don't think we can stand by and not have a voice. What else can we do?

The ridiculous thing for me is that part of my wants to strike so that I have a day when I can do my paperwork.

Don't be a shallow plonker ILR, you have no respect.
Many teachers could have done many other jobs and chose this profession because they thought it was a vocation.
Then the rules changed constantly and the expectations of the role became relentlessly variable. Which got in the way of reading and writing and 'rithmetic.

I buy my own biscuits and everyone else steals them

Perhaps because of the kind of university that I went to I earn far less than anyone else I graduated with.Infact it is a standiung joke. I would say I earn on average 1/3 of what most of my peers at university now earn. In many cases it is about 10% of what they earn.

I appreciate that may not be the norm, but it is my experience of people with my academic background.

I do agree that this will probably back fire on the unions. The only thing we have going for us is that the Tories can shut a coal mine it is harder to shut down a school and import all our educated workforce from another country!

I hpe you don't eat them at school Grockle. That sort of comment attracts the rabid MNetters who feel that teachers should be superb role models and only nibble on organic carrots in front of the children.

I like teaching my job. I chose to do it. The merits of the pension didn't even cross my mind when I decided to do my PGCE in 1991. The holidays are good. I work hard in term time and less hard in holiday time.

I don't want to work until I'm 67 and neither I expect do most other members of MN in any other job / career they might have. I haven't decided whether or not to join my union in their call for a strike on 30th June but reading some of the inflamatory anti-teacher comments on here has hardened my resolve.

There is some really unpleasant nastiness towards teachers on this forum this evening; the ill-feeling some adults convey towards a whole group of working people is depressingly predictable. Threads like these attract a kind of MN audience synonymous with the Daily Mail target readership; when I read some of the views expressed on here I feel MN is no longer the supportive, lively place it was when I joined. I'll stay out of this kitchen I think - the heat is on far too high.

I ate a packet of rolos in front of a class today, I did give the student with the best work my last rolo. Hopefully I will not be sued or featured in the Daily Mail tomorrow.