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[Del Boy]

What are your views on this, my son's school maybe shut on thursday because of this strike meaning that he (and probably many others) are going to lose out on a day's valuable education I hope it doesn't shut as he has his SAT's test in 2 weeks  .
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1311388,00.html?CMP=KNC-Breaking&HBX_PK=2008_04_01_Teachers_plan_to_strike&HBX_OU=50

[Richie London]

exams are due soon so best get the strikes going again. same old story. train drivers and airports bank holidays.

my kids went back to school today after 2 weeks off, no school tomorrow teacher training day??

richie

[Del Boy]

Yeah my son also went back today, what annoy's me is the fact they do it at a part that is important in every school child's life. As for teacher training days I don't see why they do them.

[Markie]

Controversial Opinion alert.

Strike - Sack `em.

No matter the reason, no matter the industry I have no time for industrial action. And yes i know the teachers no doubt have in their eyes very valid reasons.

But blackmail is no way to get a grievance accross - thats what strike action is.

[Marks DTM Calib]

about 3 years ago I had a friend who left engineering (software) to be a teacher.....

...he says its the best job going, loads of holidays, fantastic pension and good hours, he reacons its only the disorganised ones that spend all evening marking etc!

Ow yes, hes on better maney than he was writing software!

So my opinion, they can all sod off as they dont know how well off they are!

[theowletman]

Yeah my son also went back today, what annoy's me is the fact they do it at a part that is important in every school child's life. As for teacher training days I don't see why they do them.

So that they can catch up on the mountains of instructions about what they must teach our kids, they must learn what the elf n safety brigade tell them. Also we couldn't interrupt their 13 weeks holiday by asking them to do something could we ? There are some excellent teachers out there, but equally there are some bad ones who don't even know about personal hygiene and how to take a pride in your appearance, I see one going into a local school and I thought that he was the gardner, turns out he is an english literature teacher.

[HerefordElite]

about 3 years ago I had a friend who left engineering (software) to be a teacher.....

...he says its the best job going, loads of holidays, fantastic pension and good hours, he reacons its only the disorganised ones that spend all evening marking etc!

Ow yes, hes on better maney than he was writing software!

So my opinion, they can all sod off as they dont know how well off they are!

Know what you mean Mark, my mum's a teacher and was whinging about going back to work after the easter break -try having 20days holiday a year - don't know the meaning of work

as for strikes - these bloody teachers/council workers/nurses etc need to remmember how lucky they are to be in big unions that have the power to ensure decent conditions and pay not like us plebs(well me)

[geoff]

striking that cost rover car company,they were always on strike when leyland had them. striking does not get people anywhere,also look at the petrol strike did it do any good

[AllyM]

Well , i,m one of those " bloody council workers " who work in a school ( janitor ) who has for the last dozen years had below inflation rises of 2% ( when eveything under the sun averages rises of 25% plus , pertol gas electric et.c. )  when teachers have had in one specific year a rise of 20+% , it makes my blood boil when it,s said we need cheap housing for them to get on the property ladder , what chance have the support workers got ??
Mind you , this is supposed to be a democatic country where the working person has the right to strike regardless of the consequenses , but God forbid you upset other people in the process !!

[HerefordElite]

Well , i,m one of those " bloody council workers " who work in a school ( janitor ) who has for the last dozen years had below inflation rises of 2% ( when eveything under the sun averages rises of 25% plus , pertol gas electric et.c. )  when teachers have had in one specific year a rise of 20+% , it makes my blood boil when it,s said we need cheap housing for them to get on the property ladder , what chance have the support workers got ??
Mind you , this is supposed to be a democatic country where the working person has the right to strike regardless of the consequenses , but God forbid you upset other people in the process !!

Fair comment - i new i'd upset a few

point was what about us workers who don't have a big union and only get a 1% rise - i can't bloody strike i just have to lump it

[Marks DTM Calib]

I got no pay rise for nearly 5 years.....

Bottom line is that pay is not really related to inflation etc and nobody has an automatic right to a pay rise.

Salaries should be based on the Market rate (as they are in the competitive world) where you pay the minimum required to get the right people in and keep them.

Sadly this is not true in the public sector where for instance a shite teacher gets paid as much as a good teacher.

[AllyM]

The easy answer is to join a larger union , Unison & TGWU covers about every damn job going , the problem arrises in getting management to recognise it , but if you get enough people signed up they might just have too .
If i had,nt had a rise for 5 years i would be either 1.) getting well enough paid that i did,nt bother !! , or 2.) getting a new job !!

[Marks DTM Calib]

The easy answer is to join a larger union , Unison & TGWU covers about every damn job going , the problem arrises in getting management to recognise it , but if you get enough people signed up they might just have too .
If i had,nt had a rise for 5 years i would be either 1.) getting well enough paid that i did,nt bother !! , or 2.) getting a new job !!

1) Are we ever paid enough?

2) Easier said than done without moving....

Unions are powerless these days, all they can do is offer advice and try the scare and annoy tactics.

Lets be honest, if public service workers were to get a pay rise then there would be the need to increase taxes to fund it and affect the public service workers out goings anyway.....plus they never consider the pension they are getting as a major benefit in the calc as well.

Still no sympathy, its a dog eat dog world out there.

[AllyM]

" increase taxes to pay for public sector wages " , Christ there can,t be many other ways of screwing us to the wall that they have,nt done already !! . I agree unions are useless these days  and as for more money , well i would like to be able to spend more on my Omega please , or if given enough , fill my tank full of petrol !!

[ians]

but Mark et al,  you don't understand these public sector workers have such stressful jobs that they need to be able to retire at 60 onto cushy final salary pension schemes. Those of us living the high life in the real world should be happy to work for as long as it takes to fund them.

Pay rise sir?  We'll just hike national insurance to pay for it - noone will notice...