Teacher Pension - Strikes

[Del Lardo]

I'll also say that I think the Unions in general will struggle to gain support from the general public at the moment, a lot of people in the private sector have really suffered in the last couple of years and whether you like it or not there is a great deal of bad feeling towards the public sector in general even though most of it is backed up with little fact.

The recent strikes by the Underground staff and BA Cabin Crew have also given strikes a very bad name, certainly from people I know and have spoken to there zero support and there is the perception that they were/are about greed and power at a time (again) when people were loosing jobs or taking pay cuts to stay in work.

[Mark]

My several p:

• They changed from RPI to CPI, not the other way around. CPI excludes things like mortgage payments, estate agent fees and council tax - which a typical pensioner either wouldn't pay, or would get discounts upon. It's also, conveniently (for the government), historically lower than RPI.
• I'm supportive of the right to strike, but not of the current wave of reasons for striking. Private sector has had to deal with dwindling pension pots and rising retirement ages for years, so I think equalisation is fair.
• But, I accept that if you're going to equalise pensions, you should equalise salaries as well - i.e. ideally the package as a whole should be approximately equal.
• The above is, however, a utopia. Reality doesn't work like that - the private sector will always try to head hunt the best, and that means paying them the best.
• Don't think the comparison with the armed forces (or the Police/Fire Service, for that matter) is fair. It's called 'hazard pay'. Much as tabloids might have people believe otherwise, classrooms are typically not war zones and teachers typically don't suspend their home lives for six months while they go stand on the front line getting bombed and shot at.
• There's too much petty bickering, still. For off-topic example: Strike when you really need to, not just because one of your colleagues was wrongly dismissed. That's what an employment tribunal is for, and TfL have duly been hoisted by their own petards. If TfL don't take heed, then is the time to strike.

Be warned - while this might not apply specifically to teachers, if you strike over minutiae or things that everyone else has to put up with anyway, don't expect support when you plan to strike over something that really matters.

[Pickers]

That's just it mark, teachers never strike (well, NUT do).

[Mark]

Of course, being the biggest union, what NUT does gets lumped on everyone else (yes, I'm guilty).

In this case, I don't particularly mind either way, but if some, especially RMT, don't get a reality check soon, everyone will pay for it.

I'm also biased against unions anyway - never been a member of one and they're not recognised at my workplace (beyond legal duties, obviously), so there's no reason why I should.

[TinkerBell]

I don't watch the news, so I haven't heard all the in's and out's about it.

However my general opinion is that the majority of the time the british as a nation take a massive beating from the government and we mostly just roll over and take it. So I think there should be more strikes to drop alot of the prices. For example petrol prices, the british have one of the highest prices for fuel, because alot of the other countries said no to rises and actually did something about it. So I think you should strike and to be quite honest, 1 day won't make much of a difference to the kids education. If it did, parents wouldn't take them on holiday in school time.

[Jingo]

Has anybody seen the striking/protests going on in Spain at the moment and over past months?

Thousands and thousands of people protesting yet the governments have clamped right down on the media so it has had hardly any media coverage...

I think striking is certainly an effective way of causing a scene/further awareness/proving you mean business, but it needs to be a majority doing it for it to have any effect... Bristol Uni staff striked recently but not all of them and I had a 'normal' day in uni completely unaffected bar the small group of polite people with signs on the picket... THAT was a waste of time and got them nowhere.

[vix]

Our (the county's) schools are helpfully closed on the day of the strike! I don't teach on Thursdays but worried that my interview will be then and I'll have to cross the picket line!!!

Also generally worried that striking will affect my job. At the moment I couldn't care less about a pension as long as I have a job but should think of the long term!

[Pebs]

I envy your right to strike. I'm one of the ones who is adversely effected though, having to take a days annual leave in order to cover your day. Which wouldn't be the end of the world but I am currently £1000 worse off a year (after tax), possibly with another £200pcm to go too (London weighting) with virtually no support staff and fewer front line staff, knackered cars, no replacement uniform, increased pension contributions in the pipeline and we can't strike as it's illegal.

I'm not called Murphy. I am bitter.

[vix]

Oh, just realised I can't strike as i have a girl coming in to do an exam.

[Jonny69]

In my opinion this whole thing stinks. You join an organisation based on the job and the benefits. Many have chosen their career in teaching/civil service/public services based on job security, accepting that it's not the best pay in the world, but a good pension package at the end so you at least have something later in life. So then they decide to take it all away from you and you end up with all the dis-benefits of the job but none of the benefits. What a load of ****.