Strike Action

I’ve seen some of the pressure teachers get, from parents (at my sons school, when he joined I saw a teacher get moaned at as the 4 year old wasn’t toilet trained….) its all admin and tests, and don’t get me started on the lack of authority they have to control kids.

I have to say, I support their claim and right to strike.

Strike? When are teachers going to find the time between “in service days”and long holidays. Seems they start at 9am and finish between 2-30 or 3pm around here. .

Umm i think you will find that thats the time the pupils are at school where as the teachers are in from 8 till 5, if not later.

CD, yes that’s allowed, if you want to quote a portion of a post above that is large and you want to answer a portion then feel free to quote that portion. What we are trying to move away from is the frequent and unnecessary use of the “QUOTE” button as the standard for replying to everything we see rather than using the normal “Post Reply” button.

Anyway, what was the topic about? 😉

Edited

SH, yes of course. I understand that fully, but what we are seeing on all forums (not just in here) is the incessant over-use of replying to threads by using the “quote” button. There are consistent “offenders” who just use the “quote” as the norm for replying. This is happening even on 3-4 worded posts where there is perfect clarity as to who is posting what.

Deano, yes, of course we try to adhere to the rules. The problem, as can be seen from a couple of these threads, is when there are multiple posts coming quickly after each other it is often unclear as to which is being responded to. I am sure we are all very concious of the need not to quote unless absolutely necessary.:)

I try, where possible, to only quote the smallest relevant part of another post (and very rarely if it is in a large post directly above) but I don’t know if that helps at all; I’m not sure of the technicalities!

I will continue to try to do my bit! 😀

Come on SH & CD, it isn’t rocket science :diablo:, just don’t quote the post directly above, feel free to use the quote system but just use common sense. For example, I didn’t quote your post here because my post is directly below it. There is nothing wrong with quoting from posts “higher up” the list as per the ruling in the CoC & Quoting Reference Stickies in each forum. We’re (I’m) not trying to be anal, we’re just trying to preserve the server space in line with the CoC 😉

Yes – that’s what I thought – getting a bit tricky with Deano on the warpath!!:diablo:

Are the Armed Forces pensions sacrosanct? They may be so far! 😉

And the Armed Forces are experiencing the third of my ‘government options’…..redundancies. The Forces are half the size they were twenty years ago.

SH – No, sorry, trying to avoid using too many quotes! 😀

Are you suggesting that the Armed Forces are overpaid or somehow that they don’t earn their pensions?

The overall aim of any government must be to balance the books; if the state pension burden becomes unaffordable (which it is becoming) any government options are strictly limited. The teachers like anybody else will have to work longer, contribute more or start accepting redundancies; just carrying-on as we are now is not an option.

Indeed but why are armed forces pensions sacrosanct?

I didn’t say at all that the armed forces don’t earn their pensions but they are no more entitled to a decent pension than anyone else.

CD – is that directed to me? There has been some uncertainty about which posts are being responded to. If it is, the answer to your question is absolutely not.

Are you suggesting that the Armed Forces are overpaid or somehow that they don’t earn their pensions?

The overall aim of any government must be to balance the books; if the state pension burden becomes unaffordable (which it is becoming) any government options are strictly limited. The teachers like anybody else will have to work longer, contribute more or start accepting redundancies; just carrying-on as we are now is not an option.

Military, police, emergency services, and teachers are the ones on top of the list.

Of course many years ago there were very many days of strikes, which we remember well, but I don’t recall teachers’ strikes in any number. Just shows how (in)effective they were…..at least they won’t be striking between late July and early September!;)

I’m shaw you wuz well edicated, Arthur.:)

I don’t think one day will harm any child’s education significantly. If there are more days of action then the government will have to sort it out. I can remember many days of strikes when I was at school and I don’t think it did me any harm – honestly;)
There is no doubt that action needed to be taken on pensions but sadly this government have, as usual, barged in with their proposals as policy, realized they weren’t best thought though in the first place and now others are suffering. This isn’t the first time this has happened.
Interesting to see how this goes – will they look at armed forces pensions as well? If one section of the public sector are being asked to pay more and work longer, what about everyone else?
What other professions should be allowed to strike? If the answer is only those that don’t inconvenience anyone then there isn’t really any point.

I can see the pros and cons for compulsory voting and regret that I sit on the fence and am unable to come down on either side.

I do take the view that certain professions, of which teaching is one, should not be allowed to strike.

So what does the union do? Force people to vote? It is still a free country.

There have been instances in pretty recent British history where unions have forced people not to work when they wanted to.

The problem is that the teachers work for the state and although it would be nice to think that governments could ‘treat people well enough’ so they didn’t want to strike the government cannot afford to; the UK PLC is already living outside its means and I’m sure the teachers (and others) would not be too happy with increased taxes.

Also teachers voting to strike may not be life-threatening but many parents will be forced to take a day off work to look after their children; this will have a detrimental effect on those workers least able to cope.

No indeed. I don’t why those that didn’t vote didn’t vote. They must surely know the consequences of their vote (or lack of it). It is interesting that some seemed to be supporting the idea of at least a 50% vote to allow industrial action and yet those same were against a similar proposal when it came to voting for MPs in the AV referendum.

Deano – point taken.

Arthur – yes, of course you are right. If people do not vote then they only have themselves to blame. However, and I note CD’s comments here, we can say that of the total membership very low percentages actually voted to strike. The majority either couldn’t care less or overtly abstained.

I was responding Lincoln’s comment about the strikers sticking together. On thoser percentages it is not what I would describe as sticking together – rather the opposite in fact.

I remember years ago that a London Underground strike was caused by nine drivers voting to strike!

In my view the norm is that workers expect to work; if they want to strike then the majority should vote to strike (abstentions should count as a vote to continue working).

Sky High & Lincoln 7 (& others), can we please stop quoting the post directly above when replying to threads. We are having a blitz on this issue and you guys will be the first to have a sook & a whinge when the forums slows down to a snail’s pace. The server space is a finite commodity. Jim, I have already PM’ed you about this.

You are in danger of losing the forum quote facility.

Thanks