Posted by STRIKE! The desperate and selfish action of a group of people incapable of rising above petty self-interest, chasing an impossible goal.
No, wait, don’t tell me, I’m a day late, aren’t I? Well, I did have to spend my four free periods yesterday (timetabled, mind, none of my teachers are selfish), as well as the evening, doing coursework. However, the news is still relevant.
Oh yes, the teachers were on strike yesterday. So were the civil servants. And the University lecturers. And the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland is closing it’s doors due to industrial action. Is it any wonder people are now comparing Brown’s Labour government to the 1970s “when workers resorted to strike action against a Labour government in a destructive frenzy”.
I was talking to a mate in my form yesterday morning who had the audacity to say that “this strike won’t affect us [Sixth Formers]“. Yes, so says the Sixth Form student taking the register in the same room as six other forms because his form tutor is on strike. No, I can’t notice any adverse effects there…
The fact is that schools here in Twydall had been affected. Rainham Mark Grammar was closed to years 7 and 8 – and year 10 only had to go in for the first two lessons to sit a Maths exam. Thames View Junior was closed to year six and St Thomas of Canterbury Catholic Primary was closed to all but two year 6 classes.
I’d like to use this opportunity to say that this is all down to the actions of a government which the local Twydall councillors support. But I can’t. No matter how bad things may seem (and believe me, receiving a pay rise which is equal to or above the rate of inflation is a luxury few public sector workers will have seen after excessive spending on the part of the government) nothing provides, in my mind, adequate reason to strike.
Suffice to say the level of respect I once held for some teachers has dropped considerably after yesterday…
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Why shouldn’t they get what the public sector get?
Don’t make the mistake of comparing a teacher to another public sector worker. When I leave uni with my Economics degree, I can either earn less that I was during my placement year and be a teacher, or earn mega-buck$ in the City. No wonder we have a lack of teachers.
We need to encourage more graduates into the profession. Easiest way to do this is pay.
Also, the people who say it affects their education are the people who take holidays in term time, or who don’t bother turning up if it snows. One day has no effects on your overall education. In fact, my lessons were not disrupted at all.
I’m not sure on your view, either. You disagree with the teachers’ strike, yet you disagree with the gov’t paying them so little?
Also, we’ve had one week of one-day strikes, not months and months of strikes all over the place. Hardly a fair comparison.
(That link about to the medway council doesn’t work, and I was under the impression it was an English exam)
I was having this discussion with Ali on Thursday, and we were agreed that the strike wouldn’t really affect people in this area, because it is a fairly conservative area – schools in less conservative areas, the ones most in need of ensuring that education continues uninterrupted, were affected much more seriously.
I sympathise with teachers because of their predicament – yes I think that they deserve more pay, and I of course think that that will encourage more people into teaching.
However, I am fully against strikes. I completely oppose industrial action. It is not the right way forward and usually achieves nothing. Has the teachers’ pay suddenly gone up? No. Why? Because there is no money in the pot because of the way the Labour government has increased taxes constantly, yet spent every penny whilst the economy soared and kept nothing aside for when the economy started to look slightly less certain.
Basically, in a NUT-shell, the overall outcome of this particular strike was a day off for the NUT’s members and senior staff in schools across the country having to work out how to cope with the sudden drop in staff numbers. No pay rise. No major headlines in favour of their cause.
And I never said the comparison with the 1970s was fair – I merely said I was not surprised to see it being made.
(The link from Medway Council worked when I tried it earlier. However, this post was on hold for ages when I went to Cadets).