grrrr royal mail strike!

[twinsetandpearls]

I went to the post office today to pick up some parcels and they have all been lost andthe guy behind the counter shrugged and said that because of the strike they were not sorting mail and that lots of it had gone missing. He then turned his back on me and carried on chatting to his colleagues. There was a queue and all of us were told that our parcels had done missing.

As a public sector worker who would never go on strike over pay and is seeing cuts that really hurt society I am shocked by their complete disdain for the general public.

FillydoraTonks dp on the other hand works in the private sector and if he wanted to strike that would be fine IMO if it was deemed necaessary as the genral public are not relying on him for their safety or wel being.

FillydoraTonks firstly not all teachers strike. I have only once voted for strike action knowing that it woud not get that far and that was because local policy was putting people in danger and meaning that kids were not being taught. It certainly was not over pay.

I don;t think my attitude within teaching is unusual either, the school I teach in is bankrupt so quite a few staff have willingly taken pay cuts, taken on extra responsibilty without taking the pay or worked extra days without pay. We could say no but the people who would suffer would be the children.

you're right, not all teachers strike

a majority strike, and thusly get decent rights for the rest of them

As far as I can see, based on experiences of family and friends, in london and the provinces, there is currently a crisis of recruitment and retention in teaching, with large numbers of inexperienced young teachers being used and experienced teachers leaving the profession in droves.

Who really suffers as a result of this? The kids.

I just don't get this argument that, because you are working for the public sector or a charity, it is somehow indecent to want decent pay. I don't want my kids teachers to be underpaid. It just isn't in my kids interests.

(also if your school is bankrupt, I assume its private-am confused as to how a state school could go private. )

aargh-am confused as to how state school could go BANKRUPT. Charity law and all. Actually confused as to how a private school could either, since they are normally charities.

Talking of teachers strikes - in the 80's there were a lot of strikes by teachers of various unions. In Scotland they had just introduced the Standard Grade exam (just for English and Maths). We did a year of those, under conditions imposed by striking teachers. Then the following year it was decided that because of the disruption caused that they would go back to the old O grade system. Cue my year group trying to fit 2 years worth of O grade work into a year. I still to this day feel that the teachers strikes were partly responisble for a lot of my class getting bad (C or lower) grade for English and Maths.
So teachers have gone on strike before and it does (who ever is striking) cause disruption to others lives as well.

FDilly I may be influenced as both the charities I worked in were big- players and paid well- the first was Macmillan (about as biga you get and excellent staff banefits- constant training, progression etc), the otehr was homeStart which paid by the local authority ratings cale- which in bridgwater meant a FAR higher wage than the average, even pro-rata'd down as we were all part time. The first was fundraising the second actually in the field.

Dh would strike for a day or so but just couldn't manage for more, with me not working atm.

Saltire yes it does, and thats why i wouldn't do it- I was in primary in the '8o's and all the parents ahd a nightmare with days off, no lunchtimes (kids had to be taken home), back then they coped as it was very rare in mys chool to ahve a working mum and those who had Mums who worked 9 - 12 at the facory so could cope, now it would devastate entire famillies incomes. i couldn't do that.

I support the posties and do hope, with all that seems stacked against them, that they do achieve something in this dispute. I work in local goverment msyself and we need someone to succeed.

I agree with Fillydora's commetns but will jut post this as my keboard#'s playing up.

My state school is bankrupt in the sense that we do not have enough money to pay all the staff and resources that we have and therefore are having to lay off staff and reduce costs. The kids we teach are costly to teach and therefore cutting back is harmin their education for that reason after soem concessions from the local authority other people have agreed to work at a lower rate or not take on the pay for etra hours or a promotion.

I am not saying that we shouldn't get decent pay, i think that we do and to be honest I woud have oncerns about raising the pay of teachers much higher as it would attract people into teaching who would be soley motivated by the money and not by the joy of teaching or a desire to create change. I am also paid by the taxpayer and therefore would feel uncomfortable earning much more money.

I don't do my job for the money in my conscious the two are not linked I love my job and I have enough money to get by and that is enough for me. If I ever found myself thinking I need to go into work as I need the money then I would leave teaching.

I agree with you saltire which is why I have such strong views on striking.

I should not have used the word bamkrupt as it is a legal word with a specific meaning what I meant was that we do not have enough money and we are ot being given anymore, we are in the red and have been told we need to pay it back.

I have also worked for homestart and done the same, when the money wasn't there to run a project I did it for free or took a wage cut so that the scheme could run. It shouldn't be the case but sometimes there is just not enought money to go around and it means either you earn less or people in real need go without a service that they really need.

T&P were you an organiser too then?

Gosh we do have a few similarities lol

The recruitment problem in London is to do with the prices of housing, I am a teacher who sadly had to leave london so she could afford to buy a house.

No I was never an organiser as I don;t drive, I ran schemes for homestart.

Ah, we only ahd organiser / manager / scheme manager for the region round our way- it runs differently in other places

Still interesting thougha s it was my hS experiences that triggered the RE degree

I taught before and then did some homestart work while I was at home with dd as they let me take dd to work.

I think it has made me a much better teacher.

I get the impresssion our scheme rusn very differently here.

Because its a fraqnchise basis of the organisation, the schemes vary hugely- which is good, as it lets you tailor the services to suit your areas- for example my area was two extremly deprived estates known for huge problems, whereas the other Organiser got a vastly sized but very affluent piece of rural Somerset to amange. Completely different issues often, but all needing the same thing- time and a non judgemental chance. I used to do a drop in grup as well as the usual volunteer stuff, and we did two annual parties.

I think HomeStart is an excellent introduction to that part of the real world we rarely see on MN. Puts things into perspective and teaches you what matters- and how to think on your feet too!

You are so right I now have such an insight into the home lives of the kids I teach. I also have fantsastic relationships with parents as I know so many of them through homestart. My secondary school is also linked to a children's centre in which homestart are based so I can mantain my link with them, I am currently setting up a scheme using teachers and homestart workers.

That sounds amazing T&P, sadly we moved away from my old area (no Uni there) so I lost contact, though have been into the local one a few times re a Uni project. My change came the other way around- I had to get amnesty in to help deal with some racist issues we were having after some asylum seekers moved in, and it went from there.

I don't know if I'd be as effective here anyway- a lot of the reason people trusted me was that I ws to an extent one of them, raised on one of the local estates, I used to use my maiden name as it was a big name in that area and had associations (saved me ftom a kneecapping with a baseball bat once!). here, I am an outsider, though increasingly poeple say Hi which is nice and Dh feel more part of the area.

I have that advantage as I grew up here, I grew up on quite a notorious road here in the catchment area of the school I now teach in. My dd and i were also homeless when we first came here so we have lived in the hostels, B and Bs etc that so many of the kids I teach live in as well as used many of the services that I went on to provide through homestart.

Last year I was teaching and doing homestart and I would be working with a family through both organisations as this town has quite a few large families so I would be teaching the older kids and playing with the pre schoolers, I fel really privelidged for families to let me into their lives on so many levels.

I have been promoted to head of year now though so need to teach full time so have stopped the homestart.

I am about to move away though and enrol my dd at a private school and I am worried at how much it is going to undermine the credibility and acceptnace I have.