Scottish teachers to be balloted about strike action

[ourweeschool]

Feeling strangely worried about this (am a teacher).

I don't know if we have public opinion with us.

Thanks from me too Judgerinder. I am a secondary teacher with a very senior heavy timetable as I am (ancient) very experienced. I also have DD3 sitting Highers and DD4 Nat 5s. I feel sick.

Hope it's all after teaching courses is over. For my DDs and pupils.

My union voted to accept but due to EIS (left when they sold out supply teachers) we will have to fall in.

Am so skint that strikes will cause severe hardship to my family.

Nobody will win .

Thanks from me too Judge. The EIS has set out proposed strike dates, they will avoid the SQA exam diet, but from my reading of their statement to members I feel that they are willing to avoid strike action, they just want to use it as a stick. Now that LA budgets have been set, and are in many cases better than had been expected, perhaps COSLA (the negotiating body for LAs) will increase their offer (the Govt had already increased their part of the offer). There's a feeling that "we are nearly there" and I hope for the sake of children, teachers and families that's the case.

Cosla have so far not increased their part of the offer at all. I suspect there will be some give. I was very surprised that the SSTA accepted tbh.

I was very surprised it was rejected. I had settled for an acceptance.

I haven't a clue what sort of deal will be proposed next.

I voted to accept it so I won't be going on strike

No union has as yet voted for strike action. Are you saying if your union does vote to strike you won’t? I hope you resign from the Union then, it doesn’t work like that!

I didn't go on strike last time either like quite a few of my colleagues and I won't resign from it

The pension strike?
How do you justify remaining a member and ignoring the results of a union ballot? I just don’t understand that. You can join a non striking union, for example. I imagine you’ll still be accepting any further pay rise we gain?

I've no idea what strike it was. I'm only in a unton in case i'm accused of anything. Sorry if that's not what you want to hear, I voted to accept the pay rise so I don't see why I should be forced into doing something I don't agree with.

You felt strongly enough to break with your union’s decision (which a majority of members voted for) but you don’t actually know what we were striking for? You gave it a lot of thought then.

It was a long time ago so I can't remember what it was about.

No further forward then and a strike ballot next week for EIS. I’m SSTA and voted to reject it.

Disappointing today. I still suspect an offer could come - perhaps between the ballot coming in and the actual strike. BUT getting the vote with the new rules will be hard, getting a sufficient majority I mean (if only such a majority had applied to Brexit...)

So a new offer was made yesterday and the EIS will urge its members to accept. It seems to be an excellent deal and strikes won't go ahead. Good news for all!

It is great that strike action will not go ahead. Reading the deal offer there seems to be an agreement that we will do 2 extra Inservice days as par5 of the deal. Was this in the last deal as no one seems to be discussing it?

The letter from John Swinney outlines conditions for the deal - it looks like the extra in-service days are for 2019-20 only and for the purposes of "increasing teacher agency and school empowerment". So yes, a few bits and pieces have been added but it's all stuff Education Scotland have been pressing for for a few years anyway.

Are you assuming the extra days come out of holidays, I’m pretty sure they will come out of teaching days. They are meant to be an improvement not a condition!
The deal is 1% better than the last one, I think it’s the right time to accept but I can’t say I’m rejoicing about it. The letter doesn’t contain anything concrete that will help me in my job.

They would come out of teaching days. I guess the conditions will only bring about improvements if the LAs approach them in the right way!

I really don’t think those are conditions for the deal, they are to sweeten an only marginally better offer - in other words they are things that the teachers want, not things the government want! Teachers will say workload, support for ASN and pay are the three top issues for them.
Unions wouldn’t be in favour of an offer that came with conditions, ie strings attached.

It's great news that we've got the pay rise, particularly because of the people who will happily take the pay rise but wouldn't strike for it. I was really worried that we'd lose the strike ballot and end up in a stalemate and more years of no pay increase. It's still not quite what we asked for but proves the benefits of having a strong union.

Yes, SSTA members too will be happy for an extra rise! (Though quite a lot of their members did vote to reject). Of course, it’s not even been offered by cosla yet never mind accepted by members.