Teachers' Strike in England and Wales

[flying plum]

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[emzy1985]

Bout time they got off their arses and started fighting for the wage they deserve!

I have spoken to a teacher recently and she has been trying to get her school to go on strike for years.

Go on you lot!!!

[aubergine]

On one hand I believe in the right to industrial action, and I don't really care who it inconveniences along the way. That's the point.

On the other I don't know many people who have had any raise at all in the last five years. My pay is worth less every year my salary stays static and looking around at the job market it seems that offered salaries in London have dropped in the last year or so. Whatever happens I have to accept a cut in money this year and can only dream of being offered a raise.

[cedarblue]

t'was on the radio this morning.

one teacher said he did not want to be on strike but as someone who took part in a democratic vote, he had to comply with the decision. another chap was ranting at teachers saying 'they had just had two weeks off (easter presumably) sitting on their arses and now they want another day off.'

since working in a school i have changed my mind about teachers after seeing the 'other side'. they are expected not only to educate these days but also to be nursemaids and social workers in some cases. they do not have all their holidays as holiday, a lot of it used in preparation for a whole terms work for perhaps 7 different classes in different years and they come in to run exam booster classes (for which they are paid) too, but it's still taking up some of their private time.

it's a very difficult situation, imo all public sector workers should be paid an adequate wage that increases with the cost of living, teachers, nurses, police, firemen etc. they are there when we need them and our lives sometimes depend on them.

my daughter is at home today but she's using her time wisely ......... staying in bed till midday then seeing friends this afternoon - well she is 14, wouldn't you?

[cobweb]

good post, cedar, i think everyone should be paid an adequate wage as we all rely on one another really.
(we don't have the strike here but we do have a petrol crisis looming due to a refinery strike - i still back industrial action when it's necessary).

[BlackCats]

I support the teacher's right to strike. My husband works for London Underground and I know a lot of people get angry when people who work on the tube go on strike because of the disruption to commuters but sometimes he doesn't even want to go on strike but it is by union vote so he does.

[cedarblue]

good post, cedar, i think everyone should be paid an adequate wage as we all rely on one another really.

absolutely - and non-union workers eg. shop staff (often paid the minimum wate or just above) should be included. a minimum wage rise annually by law, perhaps dependant on turnover that year (if you work for a small independant shop) sounds good.

the cost of living goes up annually as do services etc, how can wages stay the same? the math doesn't add up.

anyway, i digress.

[flying plum]

edit: i just realised that i never actually reposted it. perhaps korn could move this when he gets a mo?

i love that i deleted and reposted and people still replied

aubergine - I'm not sure what you do, but i agree that everyone's salary should be reassessed annually in line with the inflationary changes. the only difference between a private sector job and public, is that public jobs can often be the victim of politics as teh wages come from taxes, thus strike action is more needed. private sector workers are more able to approach their individual employers for a pay rise - although if the industry as a whole is underpaid, no one should ever rule out strike action

my mum's gutted; her school didn't vote to strike, so she's got to go to work today but your're right cedar - teachers might get long holidays but the crap they put up with and the hours they work during the year certainly render them deserving. my mum can still be working at gone midnight when she's marking papers, or just has a lot of lesson planning to do, and she does work during the holidays too.

amanda

[Maisiepaisie]

The average teachers wage is just over £34,000 per year. Some folk might say that's a lot but I reckon they deserve every penny and more. Their job isn't just 9am - 3:30pm, they have to spend hours every day planning lessons and marking work, not to mention the stress of dealing with problem kids. I don't think a 4.1% pay rise in line with inflation is too much to ask. I hope they they get what they want. Good luck to them!

[cedarblue]

The average teachers wage is just over £34,000 per year.

i'm interested where that figure came from maisie (not in a sarcastic way, in a very interested way! )

that's certainly not what some teachers were quoting on the radio.
was that figure averaged out right up all the pay scales i wonder? which would raise the average. there are many payscales in teaching, with gaining of new qualitications etc. there are a lot of teachers on much less than that.

[flying plum]

it may be a distorted average. there are various london weightings, and presumably a lot of teachers proportionately in london which may have brought an average up depending on how it's configured.

It also varies on how long you've been teaching, what degree classification you have and where you teach.

I'd still be surprised that £34,000 is the 'average' though...i should think that's a lot higher than most. certainly a lot higher than a lot i know, including my mum.

amanda

[flying plum]

here is the teaching pay scales for 2008:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/93...0to%202008.pdf

M1 means first year, M2, second etc etc. after 6 years you can apply to move to the upper pay scales, which involves proving competancy as a teacher etc. from what i understand from my mum. even then, not including london, but including london 'fringe', the top rate of pay is £35,250. If you take on additional responsibilities, like head of year etc, you get extra pay on top of that.

it's not bad pay if you can get up to those top levels, i guess. i doubt i'll ever be earning much more than that that said, it should probably stay in line with inflation, as should everyone else's. though, the earliest you'd qualify for U1 status would be when you were 29/30.

amanda

[Maisiepaisie]

i'm interested where that figure came from maisie (not in a sarcastic way, in a very interested way! )

I got it from the link that Flying plum originally posted. Having looked again, that figure is for the most experienced teachers outside of London. So not an average, sorry my mistake

[emmapresley]

supporting it too. our schools didn't strike today, but the comments i've heard are all along the line of 'inconvenience for the parents having to have their kids at home for the day'.
my best friend is a teacher and works her arse off..in school and outside of it..her holidays too doing preparation for lessons etc.. they totally deserve more money!!

[Maisiepaisie]

the comments i've heard are all along the line of 'inconvenience for the parents having to have their kids at home for the day'.

No inconvenience for me, I got a nice lie in this morning

[xwitchymagicx]

They had it at my college...

They had UCU posters everywhere and stickers. lol

They didn't shut college though! We just had to sit around doing sweet feck all. lol

[Ara]

I'm on strike today, and i have mixed feelings about it...for one thing i think if the NUT actually want any progress, then we need to strike for more than one day - after all a day in the middle of term is just like an INSET day and won't really affect many people.

I'm also quite happy with my current pay, and my prospects for future pay when moving up the payscales. But i'm a member of the union so i'm on strike...

One thing that annoys me is the fact that my Mum's a nurse who's been working for 40 years and is still on £24K, whereas i know within the next two years as a teacher, and someone just over a third of her age, i will be earning the same. I really feel that those who work for the NHS need a serious payreview, more than us i think.

It does annoy me though when people think that teachers go home at 3pm each day and spend all their holidays lazing around :/ if only it were true!!

I also think we need danger money...in no other job would people be expected to put up with being sworn at and verbally and (more often than people would like to think!) physically abused by their client group??

Just my few pennies!

[absentmindedfan]

While I'd love to have the annual pay rise that teachers get, I don't work the 60 hour week which is average for a teacher. It's an incredibly difficult job with a lot of stress, personal responsibility and long long hours. The only holidays you really get are a few weeks in summer (and even then you'll be developing your resources and curriculum) - the rest of the holidays are spent marking, planning and catching up. And as more initiatives are poured on to teachers the harder their job gets, not to mention the awful awful way the majority of children behave now. I realise it's a cliche to say things are getting worse but they are, sadly.

[RebeccaDye]

Several schools in Lewisham were closed due to the strikes, other than the one up the road where most of the teachers have signed away their rights to strike action for a bigger wage... Personally, I'm behind the teachers 100%, as a GCSE pupil, I see how much time and effort is put into my education, revision sessions, after school catch-up sessions, last minute catch-up sessions, tutoring at 8am and 3:30pm, summary sheet after summary sheet, endless marking, mock exam questions. Their jobs clearly take up a huge amount of their "free" time so they deserve a couple of extra pennies.

[chickpea_chica]

I support the teachers' strike, but my best friend, a secondary school teacher, doesn't! She says that public service workers shouldn't be allowed to strike because they are indispensible. I say they should for exactly the same reason. Lol.

[emzy1985]

Did they ever get what they wanted btw?

[flying plum]

not yet, i don't think.

amanda