Strike Day

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Few off and Ofsted are in

 

How does that work with the inspection then?

[6Foot2]

Year 10 and 11 dismissed after lunch today.

[fiza]

Id forgotten it was strike day.

Drive to work was surprisingly traffic free.

We have 12 teachers out. 1 year group going home at 11. Another year group starting at 10. Other than that a normal day

[Trapper]

Next to no one in and my techie is off sick.

 

Man I'm bored.

[AngryTechnician]

No change here, I don't think any of our staff are NUT. Our head is seriously anti-strike anyway so almost no-one here strikes even when we are affected, as they know they'll be in for it.

[Sheridan]

Closed to students here - upgraded 2 ICT suites to SSD drives already!

[abillybob]

Noone is off, not one single teacher has gone on strike here. Just another boring Wednesday for us !

[sparkeh]

Our head is seriously anti-strike anyway so almost no-one here strikes even when we are affected, as they know they'll be in for it.

Pressuring people into not striking? Dangerous ground there.

[Tesla]

Pressuring people into not striking? Dangerous ground there.

My thoughts too. Didn't want to say anything, but since you've taken the hit...

[sparkeh]

My thoughts too. Didn't want to say anything, but since you've taken the hit...

Don't mind, just the truth, and if the truth of the matter is as that post read, the Head is potentially storing up big trouble for him/herself.

Plus its morally repugnant that someone is pressuring people not to exercise their right to withdraw their labour.

[hawc]

Only year 11,12 and 13's in today. I took today to tidy the server room up and did some re-cabling, color coding all of the cabling. I took one room out of service at one time. I will do all of the servers during Easter.

[Iain.Faulkner]

Years 7, 12 & 13 in here.

 

Pretty quiet day....unless you count the power cut which took out our main comms room and Pc's across the school!

[mthomas08]

A non-event here, only two teachers are out.

 

Same, Facebook is having a field day though with Teachers posting all day about how hard their job is etc etc etc (at previous job).

 

There are times when I want to at the end of the day post something but I am holding back.

[StevieM]

I used to be in the NUT but I've switched to Voice now. I don't have a problem with people striking - done it myself before now - but if you do strike you MUST attend a rally/demonstration/picket whatever and not just use it as an extra day off.

[Trapper]

My major problem with the strike is that the NUT are playing the "poor teachers" card. Underpaid, overworked and not respected.

 

As a member of support staff in a school in the past I've also been underpaid, overworked and not even given token respect by teaching colleagues. If they think they have it bad, I wonder how they view TAs and the lower graded support staff?

 

I'm lucky in my current school. I am paid well and respected, but we've all worked in schools where teaching staff have considered us to be something they've stepped in.

[mthomas08]

My major problem with the strike is that the NUT are playing the "poor teachers" card. Underpaid, overworked and not respected.

 

As a member of support staff in a school in the past I've also been underpaid, overworked and not even given token respect by teaching colleagues. If they think they have it bad, I wonder how they view TAs and the lower graded support staff?

 

I'm lucky in my current school. I am paid well and respected, but we've all worked in schools where teaching staff have considered us to be something they've stepped in.

 

I can't +1 this one enough, this really does sum up a lot and we all know it's true.

[Garacesh]

I used to be in the NUT but I've switched to Voice now. I don't have a problem with people striking - done it myself before now - but if you do strike you MUST attend a rally/demonstration/picket whatever and not just use it as an extra day off.

 

Definitely.

I think that's what used to make strikes effective (that and the fact society cared about other people) but the fact that people were out on the pickets and making a public demonstration.. It gave people a chance to see how desperate these people were for $change (or at least how much support there was for it)

 

Now? It's 'a day off', and we can't have week-long destructive pickets like we used to because they're illegal (I think? Correct me if I'm wrong?) and since your strike days are unpaid, sure, you still have the right to withdraw your labour, but like hell can you do it for any decent period of time. Yes, the strike shows how much disruption would be caused if you all withdrew labour because of unsatisfactory conditions - but the government know it's just an inconvenience for a day. Tomorrow it will be back to normal, and no more than 1% of staff are actually going to permanently leave their jobs because of it, because finding new work isn't the simplest (especially if even 10% of the teachers walked out for good)

 

PLUS! Bonus! The general community always blame the strikers and not the government conducting they pay cuts/increased workload/lack of safety/$reasonForStrike that causes them to walk out in the first place.

A lot of people see it as 'greedy teachers wanting more money' and, whilst I don't deny I'm sure some of them do it just for that reason, I know there will be genuine people struggling, especially the TA's or lower-in-the-hierarchy staff.

Edited March 27, 2014 by Garacesh

[hardtailstar]

A friend of mine on Facebook was saying because parents get fined for not having kids in school that the teachers should be fined.

 

I pointed out that the teachers wont get paid for striking.... His argument and opinions went very quiet from then

[sparkeh]

A friend of mine on Facebook was saying because parents get fined for not having kids in school that the teachers should be fined.

 

I pointed out that the teachers wont get paid for striking.... His argument and opinions went very quiet from then

Urgh, I hate this moronic argument.

There are lots of reasons why this is a stupid thing to say, not least that its not the school/teaachers fining parents and the money doesn't actually go to the school.

[hardtailstar]

Urgh, I hate this moronic argument.

There are lots of reasons why this is a stupid thing to say, not least that its not the school/teaachers fining parents and the money doesn't actually go to the school.

 

so did I,

 

Its clear that the general public do not know the full facts!

[Sdrawkcab]

Urgh, I hate this moronic argument.

There are lots of reasons why this is a stupid thing to say, not least that its not the school/teaachers fining parents and the money doesn't actually go to the school.

 

It means they've missed the whole point of a strike, too. If strikes didn't inconvenience people, they wouldn't be an effective form of protest. The point is to draw attention to the problem, if the strikes could be easily ignored there would be no point in doing them.

[sparkeh]

Ok I'll say it, I agree with the teachers' grievances.

They are overworked, over scrutinised and under valued by our society.

 

What I find really sad is when a group of people look at another group and say 'Well they have it better than us so they should put up with it' when we should be saying 'They have it better than us so we should strive to improve our own conditions'. But no, the majority sit on the sidelines and snipe. This is exactly what the Government want, us to turn on each other while they drive through their own agenda of swinging cuts and changes with no one group with enough support to stand up to them.

[kernewek-sam]

Ok I'll say it, I agree with the teachers' grievances.

They are overworked, over scrutinised and under valued by our society.

 

What I find really sad is when a group of people look at another group and say 'Well they have it better than us so they should put up with it' when we should be saying 'They have it better than us so we should strive to improve our own conditions'. But no, the majority sit on the sidelines and snipe. This is exactly what the Government want, us to turn on each other while they drive through their own agenda of swinging cuts and changes with no one group with enough support to stand up to them.

 

I've seen a few teaching staff in tears over the stresses of the job, I don't envy them. You're right about this government turning people against each other.

[Grey-gear]

You're right about this government turning people against each other.

 

Cameron's big society at work I guess.

[Garacesh]

What I find really sad is when a group of people look at another group and say 'Well they have it better than us so they should put up with it' when we should be saying 'They have it better than us so we should strive to improve our own conditions'. But no, the majority sit on the sidelines and snipe. This is exactly what the Government want, us to turn on each other while they drive through their own agenda of swinging cuts and changes with no one group with enough support to stand up to them.

Since I got more involved in politics over the past few years I've always said it (earlier in this thread, and I'm positive I've said it in others, too) that that's half the problem.

Specifically speaking, teachers jobs are dramatically changing. They are getting paid less, they are being told to do more, and now we're getting an entire new curriculum brought in with the addition of programming. And whilst I agree teachers ought to create their own lesson plans and mark work and such, I can't help but notice the amount of teachers that I can see are physically flustered, running about like headless chickens with too much to do. It's likely in some circumstances this is exacerbated by poor planning, but not all the time.

I get here at 8 (ish), and there's already a fair few teachers in. I leave at 4:00 (ish) and I know for a fact a lot of them are still here, doing lesson prep, writing up reports on SIMS, covering detentions. Then after that, they take marking home and have to sit there and do that. I'd predict some staff are 'working' until 20:00 frequently, even if they're not 'at work'

 

Then, when things get too much and they do stage a walkout, what happens? Joe and Jane Bloggs Public snipe at the teachers. From the petty "Don't they get paid enough already?", to the selfish "Great, now my boss isn't happy because I have to take a day off work to look after my child!". It becomes an 'Attack the strikers' mob, who pay zero attention to the reason behind the strike. They don't consider that the strike is because someone else is changing too much, or putting too much of a load on them. They attack the symptom, not the cause.

 

Strikes are supposed to be disruptive. Especially when teachers or other interaction-based staff (Doctors/Nurses, etc) they have ripples that effect the entire society around them. And that is the point. So when you're having to tell your grumpy boss you won't be in because of the strike, spare a thought. Yes, this disruption is intentional. But not through malice or spite. Every worker has a right to withdraw their labour and I genuinely believe most teachers don't want to do this. They want to carry on teaching, but they feel that they can't under the conditions imposed on them. The point is, this is what would happen all the time if every teacher exercised that right permanently. And then you'd be in for a whole world of difficulty.

(By 'you' I don't specifically mean anybody here. Just the general sense.)

 

I've seen a few teaching staff in tears over the stresses of the job, I don't envy them. You're right about this government turning people against each other.

I certainly don't envy them, either. I couldn't do what they do (partially because of the workload I hear about, and partially because I just don't think I have the training, nerve and psychological skills to deal with unruly children)