Scottish teachers strikes

[museumum]

How have other Scots found the teachers strikes?
I’m seeing a lot of stress from English parents I know on Fb as well as on mn but it seems to me in my bit of Scotland parents have said “fair dos” to the teachers and just got in with things/arrangements quietly.

I’m not sure this is necessarily good for the teachers cause….

interested to hear from other Scots around the country….?

I agree @Shelefttheweb - and yet again the pupils suffer.

Apparently a new offer is being made.

news.stv.tv/scotland/new-pay-offer-made-to-stop-scottish-teacher-strikes-closing-schools

Let's hope the unions give the opportunity to teachers to vote & suspend further strikes while negotiations continue.

This should be put to a ballot and if the targeted strikes remain in place next week I will find it difficult not to picket my local picket line.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-64841722

Good news.

Thank goodness. I hope that is true that the targeted strikes are being cancelled. They were profoundly unfair.

I heard the unions are balloting & recommending acceptance - about time!

Hallelujah about bloody time too.

Local council are on social media saying next week's targeted action suspended.

Great news...we have had an email and the ballots are open, recommended to accept so 🤞🤞🤞

I'm not accepting the deal but I imagine it will get through. It's no better than the one we were offered a few weeks ago (0.5% extra which will just pay us back this week's strike days) and will tie us in for another year and a half!

I have no sympathy for you using our children for blackmail. You chose to strike this week and deprive our children of their education and preparation for exams, risking their ability to earn anything like what you earn. You don’t get paid back for that!

@Shelefttheweb

I am not asking for sympathy! Just stating why I am not accepting the deal. We could have avoided striking if a decent deal had been offered in the first place. Your anger should be directed at the government rather than the teachers.

The proposal involves a 7% rise backdated to last April, a further 5% this April and another 2% in January.

That's a pretty good back dating? That's 12 percent by a few weeks?

I'd say that was a great result

You have a decent offer - an incredibly decent one in fact. My anger is directed is directed solely at the teachers who are very paid on comparison the their counterparts elsewhere, who are holding our children to ransom, and who patently don’t give a shit about their education.

^paid very well in comparison to their counterparts elsewhere in the public sector

It does sound ok until you think that food inflation is currently sitting at 18%. Also our pay has declined in real terms by more than a quarter. This is because during austerity we were getting no pay rises and then only 1% per year. This is what happens- our pay is massively devalued and then we get what is seen by the media as a massive rise and everyone goes on about how well we are doing!

Anyway. I am sure the deal will be accepted and strikes will end.

As per the rest of the public sector (and many in the private sector). Contrary to what many teachers seem to think, there isn’t a money tree growing somewhere from which to give you an over-inflated deal without slashing budgets elsewhere or increasing taxation. You’ve been offered a realistic and good deal - and the strikes damn well should end.

My sister - who works for a well-known private Scottish energy company - has been offered 2%.

To knock back 14% is ridiculous.

I think the teaching unions are massively out of touch with public feelings - sympathy is gone.

No, I am angry with teachers who don’t care about the impact of their actions on children. You have been offered very decent pay rise that you have turned down. Where do you think the money for this is coming from? Council tax and central taxes going up and cuts to services. But you whinge that the extra doesn’t cover the days you sat on your arse not doing your job.

You can think whatever you like. All workers need a pay rise that keeps pace with inflation. I would support public and private employees in that endeavour.

Teachers care very much for their students, hence myself and many of my colleagues will be available during the Easter holidays offering additional support in the run up to the exams.

All workers need a pay rise that keeps pace with inflation

Yeah, because what we need just now is hyperinflation. I hope your subject isn’t economics.

Teachers care very much for their students, hence myself and many of my colleagues

Or English. "Myself".

No you don’t care at all - and as you well know, it’s not every teacher who’s providing a couple of Easter classes. Many are providing precisely none, and if you hadn’t been on strike you wouldn’t be so far behind in the curriculum at this point and having to make up so much ground .

In an ideal work we’d all have the kind of pay deals you want but this isn’t an ideal world. Be realistic - and try to understand what the consequences of over inflated pay deals are.

I’m delighted with the offer and accepted approximately 30 seconds after getting the email.

I’m annoyed and worried that the Twitter teachers are so publically rejecting it. I just want back in class and ready to go.

Twitter like Scotsnet is an echo chamber. Most moderate opinions are never aired or heard. Do what is right for you and pause to consider how many who will do likewise without posting anywhere.