Who is/isn't striking among the NUT members here?

[lifeissweet]

Facing a dilemma. My beliefs about unions are based on the fact that united we have a voice. People fought to have the right to unionise. If a union calls a strike, then I believe all members have a responsibility to stand up together. Otherwise, we come across as divided, not united and it weakens us all.

Not for a long, long time has the teaching profession been under so much threat and we need to be united now more than at any time. Our terms and conditions are facing changes which will make teaching a far less stable and desirable profession (and not really a profession at all if unqualified teachers are allowed to take classes all over the place).

However, I am currently the only member of staff at my school who is prepared to strike on Thursday. Half of the other staff are NUT. Lots of the support staff are in striking unions, yet no one is striking (including the NUT rep). The Head has told me that if I strike I will be the only one and that he will have to close only my class that day and keep the rest of the school open, so everyone will know it is only me withdrawing my labour and am I 'prepared to take the flak for that?'

I'm not sure I am, but I believe really strongly in supporting the union. The thought of ignoring deeply held principles and breaking a strike sit uncomfortably with me.

My DS's school is closed on Thursday. Other local schools are too.

So is it just my school where there are no striking staff at all? And if you are NUT, why are you not striking? Is it just so as not to disrupt end of year activities, or because you think striking isn't helping? (I don't, incidentally, but will vote with my feet on that one and change unions when this is done.) How do you square that with yourself?

Not preaching. People have all manner of reasons for not striking. I just think I want to feel a bit less out on a limb!

[BoneyBackJefferson]

Liz

Gove is not even coming to the table to talk, So gove is the reason for striking.

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

Teachers will not be taken seriously as a profession when they talk in terms of 'right to withdraw labour' - hardly in the same position as those without a voice other than as a collective - eg miners.
Would be good if teachers set up a professional body to talk about standards/education, separate from pay and conditions, then they might be seen as more serious about education, rather than looking after their own financial interests.

[ravenAK]

Liz - yes.

I am indeed striking because I feel that Michael Gove is doing appalling things to the education of the children I teach & to my own children. He is doing quite a lot of the damage by the medium of destroying the recruitment & retention of good teachers, although it's certainly not limited to that.

However, there are quite strict rules pertaining to matters on which a Union can ballot its members to strike. It has to be about the striking workforce's T&C.

If the NUT called for a strike on the basis of their motion of no confidence, for example www.theguardian.com/education/2013/apr/02/nut-no-confidence-michael-gove, this would be an illegal strike.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

Liz

You missed out "in your opinion"

[BoneyBackJefferson]

"Would be good if teachers set up a professional body to talk about standards/education,"

We had that it was a government run quango, and you do realise that those professions that have a working professional body, do not have a government minister that controls what they do and they regularly tell the government to "get lost".

[ravenAK]

I have no idea what you think we could do other than withdrawing our labour, btw.

At the moment we're supposed to be taking ongoing 'action short of strike action'.

So I suppose I could stop teaching Latin after school, running a Debating Society, delivering booster lessons in my free time, & running school residentials at weekends, but that seems a bit miserable...

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

You can not do those things, or do them and not moan about it.
What is not an adult or professional response is to do them and then moan that they are not appreciated.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

When did this become about not being appreciated?

[rollonthesummer]

If we don't do those extra things-it affects our performance management aka pay!

[ravenAK]

But I'm not moaning about doing those things. I like doing them & think they are valuable.

They generally are appreciated.

You are missing the point, I'm afraid, which is that our practical options for conveying concerns about disastrous education policy are really quite limited.

[Springcleanish]

Springcleanish, as an outstanding teacher shouldn't you be teaching the most challenging pupil's? Why aren't you campaigning about over-inflated target grades instead of striking, that is exactly what has destroyed our education system over the past decade. I hear Mr Gove is challenging grade inflation, dont you have a lot in common?

I don't choose what to campaign over, I am simply on the receiving end of initiative after initiative, I am not striking either, but completely understand why the NUT are. The over inflated target grades are in place because Michael Gove is ensuring schools have unsustainable floor targets that get passed to the teachers. Pay should not be linked to student performance, but my teaching; unfortunately this is not the criteria.

[Layla001]

JJ - we don't get paid for holidays. We never got a pay rise for doing nothing - we've always had targets. And after 6 years are pay stops regardless. For example in the last 3 years I have become curriculum manager, key stage manager, Eco committee manager, history coordinator, literacy coordinator, year 5/6 teacher. I meet over 30 targets a year usually with neverending pressure. My Year 6s who I taught for 4 years got the best results in over 8 years. So much so we got a letter from government saying well done (I nearly died from shock). Did I get a pay rise for performance? Nope. Never will. Stops at 6 years. I did get anxiety, heart palpitations and fainting for my effort though.

Unless you've walked in a person's shoes you really have no idea what you are talking about.

That's an education in itself.

[Feenie]

Oh I can count, jj - but can you read? My point was, as you well know, that we are not, and never were 'in it together'; this government could find money if they wanted to:

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/defence-chiefs-face-commons-inquiry-over-wasted-money-9161799.html

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9001510/Government-wastes-31bn-on-rip-off-contracts.html

[zingally]

OP: In my school of 14 teachers, 2 of us are striking. I was the first to put my name down for it.

I refuse to feel singled out for standing up for my principles. I'm of the view that if my union says to strike, I strike.

They supported me brilliantly when I was bullied in the workplace and I owe them a debt. Supporting their call to strike is the least I can do.

[toomuchicecream]

I have never seen as many teaching vacancies on my County jobs site as I have this year - consistently, all year. There are still 24 vacancies on there for September. Why so many vacancies? Because so many people are leaving the teaching profession. Why are so many people leaving? Because the workload isn't sustainable. Teachers are voting with their feet. I have two friends changing jobs at the end of term whose current head teachers haven't been able to replace them. People who I know who are doing supply tell me that there's more work available than they can take. Which is not good at all for those children who are taught by a series of temporary teachers.

But there's only so long that I can do 10+ hours a day in school plus two or three hours every evening plus a whole day at the weekend. That's why I am striking.

[rollonthesummer]

Toomuchicecrea-it's the same in my area. Loads of jobs still not filled. I have never known it to be like that.

[ravenAK]

Yes, I have a mate doing supply who had found the work dried up rather as Cover Supervisors became popular - not anymore. She's very busy.

As the sainted Oscar once said: '“If this is the way Queen Victoria treats her prisoners, she doesn't deserve to have any.” .

[Goblinchild]

'People who I know who are doing supply tell me that there's more work available than they can take.'

Absolutely true in my personal experience. It's so much less stressful for me being on supply, and people are so pleased to see you.

[cotwatcher]

Layla, your pay doesn't/ didn't stop after 6 years. What stops are the automatic increments that teachers get every year regardless of how good they are. You still get your usual salary and most years all teachers get an inflation linked pay rise which, I accept has been quite small in recent years ( like all public sector workers ). So, for the first six years of teaching, teachers get two pay rises each year.Then they only get one pay rise each year.
Shame on us. The point is not that the Country could easily afford it, of course it could. The point is ...why on earth should we?

[sanfairyanne]

just keep em coming. i hope this thread inspires a few more teachers to leave. within a year they will feel happier than ever.

[ravenAK]

cotwatcher, I've been teaching for 15 years & those pay increments have never been automatic.

They are designed to provide career progression for teachers as they become more skilled, take on more responsibility, etc, all of which has always required evidence of at least competence to support it.

Given that currently half of all teachers quit within five years, it's actually probably a good thing that a few of us make it through those increments to the upper pay spine, or you'd be awfully short of experienced teachers.

I worry that no-one teaching at my dc's school is over 30. They're mostly pretty keen, full of energy & talented, but as teaching increasingly becomes a starter job, there's a terrifying amount of experience & skill being lost.

Apart from anything, it's in no way affordable for us to be training teachers who only remain in the profession for a few years, & constantly replacing them as they take that expensive training & bugger off elsewhere with it...

[BoneyBackJefferson]

"most years all teachers get an inflation linked pay rise which,"

Nobody has had an "inflation linked pay rise" for a long time, just more of the rubbish being spewed by those that don't know what is going on.