Teachers to strike - 30 June

[meditrina]

breaking now on SKY

Overwhelming vote by 2 teachers' unions (92%)

OK, may be that was a bit low. Your last sentence has hit the nail on the head though Goblin - what has happened to the 3 Rs (god I am probably showing my age). I do think standards have slipped, I don't think the level 3 and 5 SATs are anything to rave about but parents are duped into thinking they are. The independent schools are moving into tougher exams because the current ones do not stretch and prepare the children sufficiently for what lies ahead. I do wonder if actually this has happened so slowly that people have not really noticed how bad it has become. Current new teachers were taught under the new GSCE structure which I just don't believe is the same as the old 'O' and 'A' level. BUT I do think that teachers have not done themselves any favours over their continual threat to strike over pay and pentions. I believe you are on a guaranteed pay increase for the next couple of years (agreed under Labour?), this will be quoted and you will loose even more sympathy.

It will be pole dancing next.

Only carrots for me, goblin. During my lengthy lunchbreak...

Going on strike would be inconvenient for me as well as for the families of my students. I'd still have to pay childcare and would lose a days pay (wouldn't I?) it's not ideal for any of us. But, as I said, o don't know what else to do.

Continual threat to strike? In 13 years of being qualified, this is the first time a strike has been imminent for me. I must gave missed the others.

LadyMacnet - the strke will cause immense disruption to parents lives because they will either have to take a holiday day on strike days or run around organising childcare they can ill afford. That is why parents are very angry and making harsh comments. Private sector employers will not be sympathetic - they will demand parents come into work or take a holiday.

That is what life is like in the private sector.

Pay freeze actually. For 2 years at least.

I must have been cramming biscuits into my gob in the elevator of a posh hotel during all those threats to strike.

MoreBeta, is that what parents do when their child is sick?

Grockle: the strikes 1984-1986 did a great disservice to those in their O and A level years and was formative in their view of teachers. This people will now be in their early 40s with school age children. They won't have thought about education much between theirs and that of their DCs, but when it is on their mind they see it disrupted by strikes. That is why it is easily seen as continual.

I think Isitreally talks a lot of sense. Winning public support will be both crucial and difficult. Even parents who value schools as far more than childminders come to rely on their being open when they say they will be in order to balance the rest of work and family. To have to pay for additional childcare, or take a day off (on a day when many others will be forced to take time off) is both difficult to arrange and expensive (in terms of lost pay). This will be seen as a burden, and therefore will not win support for the action.

One day might be survivable, more and support will be gone. Especially if, as someone posted on another thread, only 30% of eligible union members voted.

Goblinchild: it's not exactly the same as coping with sickness - that will continue as always. This is additional. So you have to deal with sick days plus strike days, losing more pay than you otherwise would. And it is very hard on businesses as everyone will want the same day off. If you need to keep minimum staffing and cannot, then you are really up the creek.

Iloverainbows: I was a teacher for not long at all and then became an accountant. I wasn't good enough to be a teacher (but was a pretty good accountant).

There was a threat to strike at some point a few years ago wasn't there? I vaguely remember something like that

If more people had the courage to strike, perhaps we wouldn't be in this shit over pensions in the first place. Good luck to them.

LawrieMarlowe - yes NUT 24 April 2008.

meditrina, maybe those employers could establish a creche on that day and the parents all take an hour each to staff it. That way, free childcare [as you would get if they were in school that day] is an option and everyone can still go to work!

Lego: nice idea! But you're making huge assumptions about the suitability of premises.

or, two parents each do half a day with two sets of children. so you only have one worker off instead of two-they could swap at lunch time.

Might work if the commute between home and office isn't two great, and you have "matching" families whose children get on at least a bit. I'm sure many creative solutions could be found - but as I said up thread, making arrangements is a burden and even if loss of productivity can be minimised, support will be eroded and will vanish before any second day.

Oh well.

I guess it makes you wonder even more about how much the current government really actually wants to invest in the young of today doesn't it. What with cuts to child tax credits for childcare, cuts to education, cuts to teachers pensions and so on. I haven't heard them talking about making work more family friendly/flexible, or thinking up new ideas on how to help working parents pay for childcare. It is a shame.

i don't think it's a case of "wants to invest", I think it's more "actually has available to spend". If they'd come in when the country had a balanced budget, then things would have been quite different. (See also thread on "Are UK and US bankrupt?")

I am not trying to wind people up - but here is something to think about:

If teachers shouldn't strike because it is too disruptive for children, parents etc; if their job is so important they face abuse for planning a one day strike; if you want the best possible teachers to teach your children...

...then why shouldn't teachers have a good pay and pension package?

Can I just pop back to make it clear (as I should have done from the outset) that I am making no comment whatsoever on whether teachers should or shouldn't strike? That is a matter for the unions.

To me, it's an important factor in whether the strike is likely to have public support. If it doesn't, it may prove counter-productive.

Goblin - fwiw, I have lots of goodwill and respect for teachers, and so do many of the people I know. You all do an immensely important and demanding job, often under difficult circumstances. As far as I am concerned, you will lose none of this good will and respect through striking to protect the terms and conditions on which you are employed.

Frankly, I am amazed at the contempt that some people here show towards teachers. I am more amazed still that people are willing to entrust the care and education of their children to people of whom they have such a low opinion.

well said chanting and magicmummy - i said something similar.

All this talk of falling standards and blaming teachers, one wonders how many of those on this thread are the same posters who think pulling your kids out of school for a 2 week term time holiday is also ok and more educational.

The turnout of the vote was incredibly low (around 30%) so how is there a mandate for strike action?
Surely the message here is that the vast majority of teachers don't want to strike...

I suspect this refelcts the fact that the vast majority of teachers realise that this strike will achieve nothing except alienate people.