teacher's strike

bylromarha

JC9297 wrote: »

I think msb5262 was saying that if a teacher chooses to strike it is their prerogative to spend the day doing whatever they choose instead of working as they are not being paid.

I always thought that if somone is choosing to strike, they should be manning the picket lines, not having a jolly.

pollypenny

boardwitless wrote: »

No, I'd rather the teachers didn't go on strike.
I am now an adult education teacher - I retrained after spending 13 years in catering (now that was REAL graft). I've never had it so good. I think all teachers and public service wallahs should have to spend time in proper jobs - retail, catering, hairdressing, building sites etc. to see how most of the population earn their money, then maybe they'd realise that maybe they are not so hard done by after all

I did two 'proper jobs', banking and civil service, before I went into teaching at 35.

In each, I left the place at a reasonable hour without taking work home.

Don't get me wrong, I loved teaching English - both language and literature - but 12 hour days were the norm and Saturday was my only day off.

Having said that, in my baby-sitting circle days, I'd take a pile of marking on a Saturday night, too.

Caroline73_2

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Have you ever considered looking at what actually happens to people who don't earn enough to be able to afford to pay into a pension scheme for 20 years? Or what happens when they have to search the private sector for a pension that doesn't have any backup?

I sympathise - I worked in the NHS and I have 2 teachers, 1 studying and one who wants to be a teacher in my family - but, believe me, we still get a far better deal than most of the population, many of whom will lose a day's pay because of someone else's decision, have never been able to afford pension contributions, would never have got so much even if they made exactly the same one and some wilyl be disciplined for daring to need to care for their children with less than a week's notice. The usual phrase there is 'failing to show comittment to the ideals of the organisation'.

Oh, and at the same time as not being paid, they will still have to pay for the other childcare fees - after school clubs the children won't be attending, childminders who can't look after the children all day due to other children being there, but won't be looking after them in the afternoon/evening either...



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Last time I looked, essential medical treatment for a potentially deadly syndrome was not an unauthorised absence, though.

And I would be wary of using the dying child analogy - after all, the parents could easily be working the tills or serving pizza - I think they are having a worse time of it and it wouldn't help for anyone to think that the nurses consider themselves better.




Emotions run high on both sides. But downplaying the impact upon people or the importance of those who have less advantage than even the most miserable offer could provide is playing into the hands of those that seek to turn pubic opinion against you.

I'm not down playing any job or considering myself better because I'm a nurse. But boardwitless said that public sector workers weren't doing real graft like those in retail or catering. It was purely in reply to that post, which is why I quoted it. It needed to be taken in context. Being as my job is caring for children with life threatening, life limiting or terminal illness, its what I have to compare it to.

rising_from_the_ashes

What I'd to know is - when our pension contributions went up last April (Scotland) - why did no one strike on our behalf?

Yet now it's the Teacher's pensions and English PS pensions, Scottish LG workers are expected to strike too (and lose money) ......

No one batted an eyelid when our contributions went up (and are still higher than many of the proposed changes in England).

Caroline73_2

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

What I'd to know is - when our pension contributions went up last April (Scotland) - why did no one strike on our behalf?

Yet now it's the Teacher's pensions and English PS pensions, Scottish LG workers are expected to strike too (and lose money) ......

No one batted an eyelid when our contributions went up (and are still higher than many of the proposed changes in England).

Surely that's something your union should be addressing?

eezer

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Have you ever considered looking at what actually happens to people who don't earn enough to be able to afford to pay into a pension scheme for 20 years?

In my circumstances I choose to make current sacrifices in other areas in the apparently mistaken belief that I would have paid in enough over the years to have a comfortable retirement.

But I think you are perhaps really missing the point of this industrial action. Most public sector workers are not going to get fat cat pensions. According to the TUC, the average pension in local government is approx £4,000. These are people in normal jobs with normal lives, struggling with pay freezes, increased fuel prices etc etc just like their private sector colleagues. They choose to save some of their salary for retirement yet more and more is demanded from them. There's 29 unions (I think) out next Wednesday. This isn't some militant action but a genuine anger/concern about the incessant squeeze on hard working, normal people.

Debbie_A_3

zippybungle wrote: »

Well, good for you! Nice that YOU can afford to have an unpaid day off work to spend a lovely day with your Kids. ....

I am not pleased at all, I think it is disgraceful and Teachers should be ashamed of themselves.

Sorry zippybungle, it was not my intention to cause hurt or upset. We are both teachers in this house, so the day is going to cost us over £200 ... which will no doubt be deducted from our pay just before christmas. But we can not do anything about that, so we have resolved to make the best of it.

I just hope the government sees sense, or there is going to be much more of this over the coming months.

Debbie

msb5262

bylromarha wrote: »

I always thought that if somone is choosing to strike, they should be manning the picket lines, not having a jolly.

As it happens, I'm joining colleagues from my union and the other unions striking at my school in a big local rally - but since when does anyone get to say what workers on strike should be doing?

A strike involves withdrawing our labour, not being in a specified place because that's where we (apparently) ought to be; many workers on strike will struggle to attend pickets or rallies because they will have childcare responsibilities...they are still exercising their democratic right to strike!

Nobody decides to take industrial action lightly - I know I've thought about it long and hard.

The day will cost me a fair bit, especially as my teenage children seem to eat money, but it feels like the right thing to do.

MsB

FATBALLZ

eezer wrote: »

In my circumstances I choose to make current sacrifices in other areas in the apparently mistaken belief that I would have paid in enough over the years to have a comfortable retirement.

But I think you are perhaps really missing the point of this industrial action. Most public sector workers are not going to get fat cat pensions. According to the TUC, the average pension in local government is approx £4,000. These are people in normal jobs with normal lives, struggling with pay freezes, increased fuel prices etc etc just like their private sector colleagues. They choose to save some of their salary for retirement yet more and more is demanded from them. There's 29 unions (I think) out next Wednesday. This isn't some militant action but a genuine anger/concern about the incessant squeeze on hard working, normal people.

People with public sector pensions are not 'struggling' relative to the rest of the workforce, public sector pensioners are the 1%. That £4000 figure is rubbish, it's obviously brought down by part time workers, people who had short public sector careers and the like.

I do wonder if anybody in the public sector ever passed GCSE maths, a £4000 index linked pension costs £130,000 or so, which only a minority of private sector workers could ever hope to save. And that's if you retire at 65, retiring earlier would cost a lot more, and it also assumes no lump sum is taken, which again increases the cost. And to re-iterate somebody who has worked in the public sector their whole life generally gets a lot more than £4k.

Here's an example, a bog standard teacher who works for just 7 years and finished on a salary of £31k (top of the pay scale for a bog standard teacher outside london) will get a pension of more than £4k pa. They will have earned approx £190,000 gross in those 7 years, and get a pension worth £137k. Good luck saving 72% of your salary if you're in a private sector job.

DirtyDick

£31k is top of the mainscale pay, which could be achieved within 7 years.

Top of the scale for a 'bog standard teacher' who crosses the threshold is now about £36k outside of London, exclusive of any other enhancements.