The upcoming Strike

[Simcfc73]

I work at a private school where 1 (yes one) teacher is taking the day off to go shopping in the guise of being a militant NUT member.

 

I had a lovely conversation today with her where I said I had volunteered to teach her lessons (the other union members are refusing to cover her lessons) so she called me a scab.

 

I am hoping that the conversation we had after she called me that will mean she will never converse with me again other than regarding work related stuff. Stuck up b****. How the F**k can Private school teachers moan? More holidays, smaller class sizes and better behaved kids, poor luvs.

[tmcd35]

We have around 30 teachers off that day! I did get a request from a slightly paniced Deputy Head...

 

Can we set up 90 laptops on the south hall for the kids to work on?

 

We only have one network socket in the hall which is up high on a balcony with the rooms only access point plugged into it. I wouldn't bore you with the plugs sockets - basically the answere was NO!

 

We found a more suitable location and they only need 40 laptops! Sweet.

[markcuk]

we have told year 7,8,10 to stay at home....still have year 9 and 11 in madness!!

[Pete10141748]

We have a (reported) 13 members of staff taking "industrial action" (not allowed to call it a strike *wtf* )

 

Everyone has been told the school is still open, kids are still in as normal.

Quite how we're going to manage with less than half the number of Teachers in, God only knows!

 

As for setting up laptops for students to work on.... HAH! That'd never work here.

 

Our laptops have to be plugged in with a power cable just to turn on

[localzuk]

Are you in a teachers union Simcfc73? If not then that teacher is wrong, if you are, you will likely be breaching your unions rules if you covered her lessons. Breaching the unions industrial action rules is normally referred to as being a scab, so yes she may be right to call you that. Doesn't mean you're a bad person though. I think the strike is a pointless action that is only going to do 2 things - damage the kids educations during a key part of the school year and turn the general public against teachers.

 

Pete - why aren't you allowed to call it a strike? A strike is a form of industrial action but isn't the only type :S Is it bizarre politics in your school?

 

We're just closing for the day - the staff who aren't striking are getting extra non-contact time to do prep.

[russdev]

@localzuk

 

Not just teacher unions any union if member of a union then you should not do the work of someone on strike and school asking you to do it is against the law.

 

Well any member of union that is member of the tuc (and that is all of them).

 

As it is covered by same law as a hiring someone to do work of someone on strike.

 

You can offer to do it does that make you a scab not sure

 

Here school closed to students open to all staff not on strike etc

 

As for strike with tony on this one let them have there day as it benefits us if they get a rise etc. But that government won't back down easily as they know give above inflation rise to nut they have to do it to rest of the public sector.

 

Russ

Edited April 18, 2008 by russdev

[Geoff]

School here is closed to kids but open to staff. We don't have a huge amount of NUT teachers though.

[Simcfc73]

Not in a union, I have a very low opinion of them but thats just my view.

 

Found out today they had a meeting and a few more are looking at striking but worried about losing pay so some of the other teachers are contributing to cover their wages as the head has said if there are more teachers not coming in they will close the school. (sorry long sentence)

 

Nowt to do with pay now, the teachers just want a day off teaching.

[russdev]

Working in schools people need to be in a union just for the protection if have kid accuse you or anything along those lines...

 

Russ

[Pete10141748]

Pete - why aren't you allowed to call it a strike? A strike is a form of industrial action but isn't the only type :S Is it bizarre politics in your school?

 

everything is bizarre here, not just the politics

 

We haven't *explicitly* been told not to call it a strike, but everyone seems very sensitive about the word.

I think the teachers taking part want to think of it as something more than just a "strike" (a term which, for a lot of people, would conjour up such thoughts as "lazy", "greedy" etc) and see it as them "taking action".

 

Yeah, right. We all know they just want a day off and more cash; based on the cars I see in the carpark, the holiday photos all over the network etc. I'd like to see a lot of them survive on the meager wages we recieve.

 

And as someone else pointed out, they couldn't have picked a worse time of the year to strike, they clearly arn't that fussed about teaching the kids, right?

 

On a side note, of course, we all know that if we techs went on "industrial action" for a day, the majority of schools would half fall apart. But of course, then all the other staff would complain they couldn't teach, call us greedy, and so on.

 

At the end of the day, what the teachers are trying to do is say to everyone "HEY! Look, if we refuse to work, schools dont work and kids don't learn". Its borderline extorsion/blackmail!

 

A techie strike for more pay with us lot saying "Look, if we refuse to work, the server log will go unchecked and you'll have to put paper in the printer yourself....." sadly wouldn't have the same effect, I fear.

[john]

Be nice if a certain union would answer my question about membership that I sent them after we last had a union discussion, but after seing what my pay will be at the end of the month with the new tax stuff, I don't even think I could afford the subs, some of us would like to eat once in a while!

 

If they want to do something good all schools should pay the fees out of a pot they have not our own wage.

[cookie_monster]

The NUT are FOOLS and once the economy goes south, people start loosing their houses and unemployment rises the will look very silly and very 'GREEDY'. At this point 'some' teachers will realise how lucky they are and it will all go quiet for a while.

 

Back on topic these people have no idea what 'scab' means other than a couple of % payrise, next time someone calls you that laugh in their face and remind them about agenda for change.