June 30th 2011 will see thousands of schools shut as teachers hold a national strike over changes to pensions. The changes will see teachers working longer, paying more and receiving a smaller pension on retirement according to the unions though the government insists that the changes are fair and necessary.
Both the AFL and the NUT members have voted overwhelmingly to strike. Around 220,000 NUT members were balloted on the pensions changes. Around 90% backed the strike action (40% turnout).
Just over 80,000 ATL members were balloted. 83% voted to back strike action (35% turnout).
So what do you think? Please vote in the poll and share your opinions by leaving a comment.
I have a big concern & that is that many teachers have no idea what their pension will provide so they don’t know what a difference this is going to make. Those in the private sector have had pensions / wages frozen for a while now. I’m not sure those ‘public sector’ workers actually understand the full package they get. If when armed with the proper information they still want to strike for more then fine but do check facts first please!
I’m still undecided but as a member of ATL, one of their grievances is that pensions are being restructured to pay off the budget deficit, not because they are unaffordable. That doesn’t seem right to me. If the scheme is unviable then fair enough but making us pay for prev govt spending isn’t right.
This is a really tricky one… My union (NASUWT) has not balloted yet so I wont be striking. I agree with the views raised by @xannov http://www.digital-teacher.co.uk/2011/06/why-i-will-not-be-striking-with-my-union.html
and don’t think that a 1 day strike is necessarily the best option at this point in time. However, it seems to me that there is still a lot of uncertainty as to how it will actually affect our pensions.
My biggest concern is that striking will damage the reputation of the profession. Testing times to come I fear…
Anna, how can ‘reputation’ be your biggest concern?
When you are fighting for something really serious, then ‘reputation’ is surely a mutable quality: Did the suffragettes destroy the reputation of women when they broke windows to attract attention to the seriousness of their cause???
I wish people would see the bigger picture here. We have a national debt of £1.1 trillion (£1,100,000,000,000) (Office of National Statistics). This debt is growing at a rate of £100 billion a year. Current government strategy is to try and reduce the amount we are borrowing NOT to repay what we owe. As such we citizens and state employees are enjoying a life that we cannot afford and is therefore not sustainable. Simply put, If we don’t endure cuts, i.e. stop spending money we never had in the first place, there won’t be any money to pay any pensions in the future regardless of terms of contract. (Look to Greece for proof). If the Unions get their short sighted way, The only method of meeting these obligations will be inflation causing quantitative easing (Jargon meaning to print more money). Therefore our futures will be mortgaged making the whole population work more for less anyway nullifying any effect of pension change in favour of the teachers.
Yes, let’s talk about “big pictures”: And thus consider the fact that maybe we are very much aware that more than just the pensions issue is at stake here. it is indeed all connected up to broader economic and political concerns. However it is union legislation which now prevents striking in the name of anything more than the apparently “short-sighted” single issues.
Furthermore -thinking of the bigger picture again- rather than fiddle around with counter-productive austerity measures here, there is surely a need to examine the £billions spent annually subsidising the (proven) economically destructive behavour of banks (individual bonuses to apparently reward such activities notwithdstanding); the further ££ evaded year on year, in unethical use of offshore tax havens,; and £££ (and LIVES) lost on evidently unending campaigns of war, such as in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
None of this is either ethical or tenable, and as we are being asked to work harder and longer, while we watch our public services sold off, I think there is a sense that something is rotten in the state… i think THIS is the signal we are getting from Greece et al – it’s a sense of nausia and anger that may not go away easily.
“short sighted…” Forgive its emotive use, it was born out of frustration. What ever the outcome of the strike, it will not solve the fundamental issues that created the situation in the first place they (the unions and its members) are just providing a distraction from the root cause of it all. Teachers, et al will always see time erode their wealth and the public will be forced to work longer for less. I agree with your points, the entire spending needs to be questioned. However, spending isn’t the be all and end all. It’s more fundamental than that.
If the United States is in debt by $4.3 Trillion, UK £1.1 Trillion, Greece 350Bn, Germany 1.7 Trillion Euros, etc, Virtually any country you think of is in debt, Who do we owe all this money too? How can there be that much money in the existence and who is benefiting from the interest accrued on it, Ignore Bankers bonuses of millions, Your are talking Trillions (beyond wealth and greed). What happens when a country defaults… Greece… There is a threat that private individuals will be allowed to buy the assets of that country from its people. Watch this set of youtubes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFb26u9g8 to learn where the money comes from. Then things will start dropping into place and it becomes truly disturbing to apply to the real world. I.E. The organisations that ultimately lent Greece (for example) the money and who are now are pressuring the country to sell of its assets never had the money to lend in the first place.
Industrial action to encourage borrowing plays into the hands of the bankers. If the Government does a U and the reported £2.5bn does not get saved, it will be 2.5bn borrowed by the taxpayer meaning additional interest of repayments of £12,500,000 @ the 0.5% base rate. (not even thinking about the compound effect or future interest rates). What do you think is going through the bank owners mind?
PS The video starts off basic, give it a chance, its simplicity is just astonishing.
As parent in a family of 2 working parents who have had their pay frozen and pensions adapted in the private sector I feel this is appalling. I am even a governor of my daughters school – something I do for no pay and I lose my free time and I will find it hard to justify carrying on with this.
83% of 40% anyone ? Certainly never a majority.
The extra cost of childcare – or lose a days pay. These are tough times for ALL of us. Teachers you have lost any grain of support you had from me.
You have all worked so hard to bring teaching up to be such a noble and respected profession – with this strike you will drag it back to the 70′s.
RW
RW: I could easily earn 3 times what i earn currently at the college i teach, if i took a job in the private sector – but i chose not to teach a privileged elite, prefering to make a difference to the young adults in my community and whose lives are becoming more and more disadvantaged by the day: the hasty and devastating removal of the EMA is now going to destroy the hopes of even more of our students. I can’t stress enough how sickening it is that the government is happy to demolish our public infrastructure and our children’s education (but not their children’s) whilst continuing to annually subsidise irresponsible banking exploits to the tune of £trillions and has just allowed 90 more Private Investment companies to register overseas for selfish tax avoidance purposes.
I like most public sector workers was never in it for the money, and would be happy to strike on far broader, deeper issues, were it not illegal to do so, due to union legislation.
And, by the way:
ONE SINGLE DAY OF STRIKE AT THE END OF JUNE IS HARDLY AS IRRESPONSOBLE, SELFISH AND DAMAGING AS TWO DAYS’ HOLIDAY -SMACK BANG IN THE RUN UP TO THE ‘A’ LEVELS- SO WE COULD ALL SPECTATE THE JOLLY WEDDING OF A YOUNG ROYAL TO HIS ARISTOCRAT BRIDE; A TREAT FURTHERMORE, WE YET AGAIN FINANCED OURSELVES, & WHICH COST THE COUNTRY AN OBSCENE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN LOST PRODUCTION.
Private and public sector shuld surely stand together on this: How much worse will it be for you when there’s no more NHS, no social care or support, schools with over-worked and elderly teachers and no equipment.
Otherwise I fear we will be simply worrying about things like keeping our “reputation” in tact, whilst we cheerfully sleepwalk through the destruction of our education system, our NHS and all our hard won public resources and services.
Why do folk feel taxing people/organisations and then spending that tax i.e. EMA is the only way of solving problems.
We live in a society where 30% of the average peoples pay packet is taxed at source, 20% of what we have left thus spend is taken by VAT, fuel taxed at 70%, TV license (tax), council tax…. How much do you think we have left for ourselves? Have you considered that families are hard up because of over 65% of what people earn is taken away from us in some form of tax or legislative necessarily (i.e. passports, driving licenses)? Employers are additionally taxed to employ people. This cost is further passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices ultimately paid with what little money we have left.
To put it simply, If people have a problem with the way the government spends money (i.e. not providing “fair pensions”, EMA, child support or what ever area a person feels financially disadvantaged) maybe the government shouldn’t try to provide these things in the first place, its fair to say it will never please everyone. The only solution to that problem is to reduce the services and provisions the government supplies thus reducing the need to tax allowing the government to concentrate on governing rather than providing. Allow us private individuals to look after ourselves within an equitable framework.
I’m all for a strike but the objective of the strike is wrong. The whole concept of not being legally able to strike for what ever reason is absurd, What are they going to do arrest all the teachers in the country. They can’t even afford to imprison the true criminals.
Why Voice: the union for education professionals does not believe that striking is the right action to take: http://www.blog.voicetheunion.org.uk/?p=2896
I’m urgently looking for a public sector worker who is not striking who will talk to a newspaper about why. If you can help please call 0800 282 591. Many thanks
I value teachers but they dont realise how lucky they are and that taxpayers are funding them.
They work only half the year and get all the school holidays off but get paid ALL 52 weeks of the year.
They get paid much more than workers in the private sector
They have jobs for life as it is almost impossible to sack an underperforming teacher.
They have goldplated fat cat pensions worth between half a million to 1.5million pounds which is paid for by people like us paying tax who will get no pension.
They get 6 months full paid sick leave whenever they want it.
It is time for their nice little gravy train to end as it has for all of us normal working people
I think its a disgrace the public sector are striking, the UK government is not a money vomiting machine especially in this time of global economic turmoil. The public sector already have some of the best pay and pensions in the world for their professions and this is just a show of pure selfishness for the greater people of the UK. What ever happened to the policy of a stiff upper lip and national unity for the good of the nation as a whole? the changes to your pensions might make you a little worse off but theyre not going to make you starve to death … its all take and no give.