Everyone Out- The Strike Thread

[BomberPat]

13 hours ago, Mr_Danger said:

I didn’t realise how many different unions the teachers were split between, here’s a crazy notion, unite over a common cause and stand together! Unless it’s a case of stagger the strikes between them for maximum impact in which case well played. Solidarity.

It's really frustrating. Teaching is apparently the most unionised job in the country, so if there were more consistency, this strike could be so much more meaningful. There's different unions for different regions, different types of teaching/lecturing, and so on, it's a nightmare.

@Carbomb- I think the NEU is NUT and the old ATL, because NASUWT are still around. 

I work in higher education, but I'm with Unison, rather than UCU - so they're on strike, and we're not. As with the last round of strikes at my work last year, Unison members are far more likely to be impacted by the changes they're protesting about, but we just consistently fail to get the ballot response needed. This time, the union have publicly blamed it on the threshold being set unreasonably high, and on the law still insisting that it has to be a postal ballot - particularly this year, when the time period during which we had to return our ballots coincided with a postal strike. There's obviously a lot of truth to that, but I also think that Unison are stretched too thin representing too broad a range of jobs within the sector at times so we always run the risk of failing to present a unified front, or to meet everyone's concerns. On top of that, we have a lot more people on precarious contracts and low salaries, who just can't afford to go on strike.

[SuperBacon]

13 hours ago, SuperBacon said:

Solidarity!

My eldests school had a "gas leak" today which we were told about yesterday.

Putting my tinfoil hat on, I reckon they don't want anyone to see just how many of their teachers are union and striking.

It's very convenient timing I must say.

On this, she was online learning yesterday and with me, and one lad just kept spamming the chat function with "Take the L sir" over and over again. Imagine that all day 😂

Pay teachers whatever they want IMO.

[deathrey]

There is differences between each Union too in regards to priorities etc. Also NEU is the only Union which accepts associate staff - without whom most schools couldn't actually function but are often forgotten about. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by deathrey

[deathrey]

2 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

It's really frustrating. Teaching is apparently the most unionised job in the country, so if there were more consistency, this strike could be so much more meaningful. There's different unions for different regions, different types of teaching/lecturing, and so on, it's a nightmare.

I work in higher education, but I'm with Unison, rather than UCU - so they're on strike, and we're not. As with the last round of strikes at my work last year, Unison members are far more likely to be impacted by the changes they're protesting about, but we just consistently fail to get the ballot response needed. 

One of the big reason teachers are so unionised is that it's so risky working in a school and not having Union support, you are at a big risk of allegations from pupils/parents.

 

I used to be in Unison and honestly thought they were shite, they never really offered any support and only seemed bothered about collecting subs. NEU were so so much better.

[Carbomb]

13 minutes ago, deathrey said:

I used to be in Unison and honestly thought they were shite, they never really offered any support and only seemed bothered about collecting subs. NEU were so so much better.

Along with what Pat's described, this is one of the reasons why I don't think there should be too much unification of the union movement. They should be able to administer to their sector's specific needs, and too general a membership can cause problems if it's not properly organised. My mum's a legal officer for Prospect, and they cover a very wide range of sectors, but they make sure that the union is clearly compartmentalised into autonomous sections. Was the same with when she was at MSF (now part of Unite) - they had sections for the Personal Sales Association, Royal College of Midwives, etc., which still shared the same membership and subscriptions database, but set up for the requisite individuations for their specific needs. They also had the League Managers' Association (Britain's smallest union - only 92 members).

In reference to what deathrey said, I don't like using the word, because it reeks, but it does seem to me that some competition for subs is necessary in some sectors between unions - from my own industry, I can tell you that Equity take the fucking piss; because they're the only game in town when it comes to performance arts, they sit on their laurels while collecting money, and their rates and Ts & Cs are a joke now. We recently had someone on a production where the production company were able to pull a shit's trick, and undercut the minimum rate by manipulating Equity's own structure, and saying "Well, we're not bothering with home video or these territories, so we're not paying for them". Equity just wrung their hands and did nothing, even after all the complaints from artists and agents. If another union like BECTU started stepping in (and they are not a union to fuck with), they might feel the need to pull their fingers out and actually start negotiating better rates and conditions.

 

[deathrey]

5 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Along with what Pat's described, this is one of the reasons why I don't think there should be too much unification of the union movement. They should be able to administer to their sector's specific needs, and too general a membership can cause problems if it's not properly organised. My mum's a legal officer for Prospect, and they cover a very wide range of sectors, but they make sure that the union is clearly compartmentalised into autonomous sections.

 

 

I totally agree with this. I think this was the reason Unison were so shite with me when I looked for support (around breaks, lunch times and playground duties) and they seemed to have no real idea as my issue was very specific to schools and no one I spoke to seemed to have any real idea about what I was talking about or the help I needed. That resulted in the advice being 'go and talk to other people who do a similar job and just do what they do'.

[Vamp]

I was with Unison when I was in public libraries and the managers would openly joke about how useless they were. The council would tell them about service changes during g Covid the day before they were implemented so the union wouldn't have time to respond and the union just went along with it. 

[Keith Houchen]

Speaking of Unison being shite. 

 

[Nexus]

Enjoyable picket, mostly supportive people coming by in their cars, headteacher came out with a coffee, and an old dear in the coffee shop when we went for breakfast told us she hoped we choked on it. 

 

Tory scum

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Nexus

[Keith Houchen]

Cracking bunch of lads, the Dropkicks. They walk the walk. 
Taken from their Facebook page  

In support of all our Union friends in the UK fighting the good fight against the elitist Tory political party we made this music video in association with the RMT (The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers). On our recent UK shows we changed the words to the song All You Fonies (Bound To Lose) to All You Tories in support of the striking railroad and transit workers, nurses , fire fighters, teachers, postal workers, ambulance staff and health workers . The song is recorded Live at Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff Wales and the live video footage is from Cardiff and the Wembley Arena show in London. Animation provided courtesy of the RMT. Best of luck in your struggle friends. 

Yours in Solidarity,
Dropkick Murphys

 

[Divorced Dad]

In a bit of a conundrum at the moment and thought I'd post it here for advice as this is one of the more sensible corners of the Internet that I visit.

I'm a teacher in Scotland and we're currently involved in industrial action relating to a pay dispute. I voted for industrial action, voted for the unions to escalate it and have previously been on strike on any days my union have called.

My union are campaigning for a 10% payrise but realistically my colleagues and myself know that we were never getting that but expected our union to compromise somewhere around 6-7%. So far any offers made by the Scottish Government have been far below that but the most recent offer was for 6% now (backdated to last April) followed by another 5.5% in April of this year. Myself and my colleagues discussed the offer and felt that it was a good offer. The union however rejected the offer outright without putting it to a ballot of members. 

We had union representatives in yesterday to speak to us about the current pay claim and we asked why 6% wasn't put to members and what percentage would be put to members. We were told 7% was the minimum that would be put to a ballot. Now in monetary terms the difference a month between a 6% and 7% payrise is actually very little. The union representatives yesterday also spoke about other things relating to the pay claim but I found myself disagreeing with their approaches and rationale behind some of the things they are saying/doing.

I'm now considering whether or not my union accurately reflects my views and opinions on the current situation and whether or not I want to continue supporting their strike action. I would have been more than happy to accept the offer of 6% then 5.5% in 6 weeks time  Other colleagues are in the same position but have said they will still strike but won't form the picket line or they will still strike as its what the union have told them to do/everyone else is doing it.

 

[Keith Houchen]

Obviously it’s up to you but just remember that any pay rise that is below inflation is in real terms a pay cut. 
 

Union officials are elected to represent members so that’s why every decision and offer isn’t put to the membership individually. But if you feel this union isn’t representative of your views then is there another union you could join that are? 
 

Strength in numbers though, sometimes things aren’t exactly what you want but remember that your union is fighting to get you the absolute best they can. They’re on your side. 

[Spud]

On 2/1/2023 at 11:01 AM, Carbomb said:

Equity take the fucking piss; because they're the only game in town when it comes to performance arts, they sit on their laurels while collecting money, and their rates and Ts & Cs are a joke now.

Equity became a joke when Paul Fleming took over - he won when only 16% of the membership turned out to vote for a new general secretary. Surely alarm bells should have been ringing somewhere. They were haemorrhaging staff from that point either because they were push out or they jumped before they were pushed. He’s a narcissistic dick who’s only in it for the name on the door and who he can rub shoulders (and nobs) with. Fuck the rest.

This is a great article from 2021 that summarises what a slimy prick he really is.

[Carbomb]

9 hours ago, Spud said:

Equity became a joke when Paul Fleming took over - he won when only 16% of the membership turned out to vote for a new general secretary. Surely alarm bells should have been ringing somewhere. They were haemorrhaging staff from that point either because they were push out or they jumped before they were pushed. He’s a narcissistic dick who’s only in it for the name on the door and who he can rub shoulders (and nobs) with. Fuck the rest.

This is a great article from 2021 that summarises what a slimy prick he really is.

I didn't know about that. Thanks for this. It explains a lot.

[Tim Healys Chutney Spoon]

Anyone seen the TikTok craze that's going across schools that's supposedly the students 'protesting' but in reality is them just Smashing the place up and disrupting mocks and suchlike?

 

My lads school had a major incident on Friday and apparently loafs of things have been planned for tomorrow such as setting bins alight, fire alarms, throwing chairs, generally being disruptive. Apparently its all to do with the uniform policy, locking of toilets, banned from wearing coats during the school day, etc.