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| Quote: Education Secretary Michael Gove has warned teachers against taking part in Thursday's strikes - saying they risk losing respect for their profession. | |
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This is an interesting story because it shows the attitude of the Conservatives towards strikes (which we all know), but also that of society towards teachers.
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| Quote: He said legislation on strike laws had to be kept "under review" - as the public would demand change "whether in the law or whatever in order to make sure we do not have militancy that disrupts family life". | |
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And this is the crux of his complaint - the whole “disrupts family life” bit. Too many times have I heard stories from various teachers I know about parents who treat schools not as a place of education for their children, but as free child care to dip in and out of at a whim. Various incidents illustrate this - from taking children out of school for holidays (there are ample official holiday times - parents should stick to those) to children taking part in school plays being collected at 10pm when the play ended at 7:30 because the parent “was doing other things” - in this case a member of staff has to hang around with the child waiting, or (as is in their rights as this can be a form of child neglect) they call social services to collect the child.
The fact that Gove has recently said that schools should be open from 8am to 8pm, and possibly even on a Saturday, shows that the idea that schools are simply an extended form of creche is taking root.
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| Quote: …schools may lengthen their hours to last from 8am to 8pm, with dinner served to pupils who choose to stay late. | |
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -Gove.html
So on to the notion of “inconvenience” - that is the nature of strikes. It’s the withdrawal of labour by the workforce, and this causes an inconvenience. I would call this the selfish attitude. Yes, it’s selfish to go on strike, but I feel it is more selfish to grizzle on about it. People always complain about how a strike affects them directly. I can’t get to work. I have to stay at home and look after my children. They never consider why strikes happen, nor what they would do if they were in a similar situation. People don’t go on strike lightly - you don’t get paid when you are on strike. There is usually a very good reason to do so.
The NUT is going on strike over their pension. teachers will have to pay more for less. The contributions will be going up, the official retirement age will be extended and when they do retire, the pension will be an average salary, NOT something approaching final salary. If you are a woman who has taken time out of her career to raise a family, you can guess that their average salary will be one lower than that of one who worked all their career without a family break. The vast majority of primary school teachers are women, so there are a lot who will be affected by this.
Is this fair? No. The pension structure was part of the employment package, and that is being changed. Not by negotiation, but by diktat.
Similar issues affect other public workers who are finding themselves on the firing line - literally. Many will lose their jobs. The government’s attitude is that it’s going to happen, and tough. I find it staggering that people feel that there should be no protests of any kind about this and that public sector workers should just take their P45 and be happy about it, and do nothing to attempt to reverse the decision. Any inconvenience suffered by the public as a result of these strikes is nothing compared to the inconvenience of redundancy, reduced pensions schemes, etc..