Will it actualy achieve anything, seems just council workers going out,bit of disruption, quieter roads, and a lot more litter bins to empty next day, and day care to arrange for those with kids.

The power of the unions has gone from the hey day of the 70,s 12 week bus strikes, 1o month coal strikes etc etc.

Discuss.

seems just council workers going out,bit of disruption for some summertime rays

FTFY.

I think one day strikes are fairly pointless. If you are in dispute you shouldn’t return to work until a settlement has been negotiated. Otherwise they are just a mild inconvenience like a royal wedding.

It’s quite ridiculous imo going back to work the next day when everything is exactly the same as it was before.

I think one day strikes are fairly pointless. If you are in dispute you shouldn’t return to work until a settlement has been negotiated. Otherwise they are just a mild inconvenience like a royal wedding.

Or a poncey road race in Yorkshire 😈

Only jokin…………………or am I 😆

utterly pointless.. no one cares less , including most of those on strike, i worked for one public servant who was on strike recently she didnt understand it but said the day off was useful for housework without the kids..

if you want to make a point show you mean it by going off till issue resolved if not your wasting only your own time.

Should the striking teachers take this advice?

The govt are screwing public services for all their worth – changing funding, working conditions and pension conditions without accountability. In the education sector almost all schools are looking at massive holes in their budgets – about £500,000 short next year in the school I work in, and even more in others. One local school is having to make 16 staff redundant next year.

Striking, even one day strikes, do make an impact. As it shows them we aren’t taking it lying down. I’ll be marching and making my voice heard. Now have a think – do you want a country where all state enterprise had been run in to the ground and then eventually fragmented and privatised (probably sold some of the Tory’s rich mates)? Because that’s what the current government are trying yo do.

it shows them we aren’t taking it lying down

So you’re not taking it lying down, so what ? You’re still going to take it aren’t you ? Even if you do moan and whinge about it.

And that’s the only thing this government wants to know, ie, that even if you do inconvenience people for one day when it’s all over you’ll still accept their demands.

Even just the threat of indefinite industrial action would have stopped this government from shafting you, if that threat was credible. But they know that you don’t feel strongly enough to manage anything more than a pretty pointless one day stoppage. So they will win – that’s an absolute certainty.

Don’t delude yourself into believing that they will rush back to the negotiating table because you took a day off which their mates who own the press will very conveniently use to vilify you.

Pita again for us. Mrs ws has had to have a day off due to schools being shut. The only thing it seems to achieve at school, is kick up the usual bullshit arguments in the playground of “its fine for the schools to close but what when I want to take little Johnny to alton towers etc”

IMHO, Home ownership has killed off the ability to strike. Massive mortgage payments mean that people can’t afford to give up a couple of weeks or months pay and unlike rent arrears in social housing, there’s very little negotiating with a bank.

It was the best stroke that Thatcher ever pulled in undermining the power of the unions.

So you’re not taking it lying down, so what ? You’re still going to take it aren’t you ? Even if you do moan and whinge about it.

And that’s the only thing this government wants to know, ie, that even if you do inconvenience people for one day when it’s all over you’ll still accept their demands.

Even just the threat of indefinite industrial action would have stopped this government from shafting you, if that threat was credible. But they know that you don’t feel strongly enough to manage anything more than a pretty pointless one day stoppage. So they will win – that’s an absolute certainty.

Don’t delude yourself into believing that they will rush back to the negotiating table because you took a day off which their mates who own the press will very conveniently use to vilify you.

To a certain extent you are right – though I think you are being overly cynical. A big part of the problem is that most people in the public sector, i.e. Teachers, nurses, firemen, etc. are usually in their job because they want to help people. Yes, it’s a wage too, but at the end of the day most of us are in it because we have a ‘calling’ (sounds cliched, but probably true). So the catch 22 I that if we were to go on indefinite strike we would be hurting those we are out to help – and the govt know this. However, this strike on Thursday shows that more of the unions are beginning to work together. If this continues, I foresee a few 1 or 2 day general strikes in the near future.

A big part of the problem is that most people in the public sector, i.e. Teachers, nurses, firemen, etc. are usually in their job because they want to help people. Yes, it’s a wage too, but at the end of the day most of us are in it because we have a ‘calling’ (sounds cliched, but probably true). So the catch 22 I that if we were to go on indefinite strike we would be hurting those we are out to help – and the govt know this

You’re right, it’d be difficult to get and maintain any public support if it’s the public that are going to feel the impact the most.
You’d be better off looking at ways to frustrate the admin of the services on a large scale.

Its not a General strike but a strike day off by various small groups fragmneted and with no real power, now if it was the power workers or bus drivers/train drivers, uk plc would grind to a very slow halt.

Weird, London underground power workers, those that control the current are now on strike for 8 days.Not much about that on the tabloid press/media, but reporte on Russia Today

Obviously people on this thread fail to appreciate the indirect effects of a strike. Teacher may not walk out and not come back but the effects on other peoples lives may convince them not to vote for those fanning the flames. Obviously this is a bit too subtle for some on here.

Its not a General strike but a strike day off by various small groups fragmneted and with no real power, now if it was the power workers or bus drivers/train drivers, uk plc would grind to a very slow halt.

I didn’t say it was a general strike. However, I’d say that about a million public sector workers striking from the FBU, PCS, NUT, Unison, GMB and Unite, is more than a few ‘small groups.’

the effects on other peoples lives may convince them not to vote for those fanning the flames

Problem you have there is the likelihood that those affected wont see it as a government issue but one of the teachers deciding to screw with parents daily lives.
I’m not a parent of school kids these days but I wouldn’t have particularly seen your POV when I was.

But you are not everyone, clearly the blinkered will not see.

clearly the blinkered will not see.

Well, if those that don’t see it your way are blinkered 🙄

Perhaps you should try to do something that’s within their vision?
As I said earlier, frustrate the admin, not the end user.

Lots of people wont see it my way, lots of people wont see it your way, lots of people will see it in other ways. Luckily there are many people.

Perhaps you should try to do something that’s within their vision?

I am, I’m going to work.

I’m naturally right leaning and anti-strikes, and I accept it will achieve nothing other than to register a protest, but I will be striking on Thursday.

I’ve 11 years service in the civil service, so didn’t have the gold plated early retirement deals that many of my colleagues have lost. Always paid private sector levels of pension contributions, so don’t start that on me, and they have been going up out of my frozen salary the last few years as well.

I’m on the front line of the botched welfare reforms that were started to try and repair the damage done by the botched welfare reforms of the last bunch of incompetents. We have delivered our part with diminishing staff and budgets. And I’ve done it on less than the average wage, with no pay rise for 4-5 years now, when the cost of living has gone up 15-20% (?) in that time.

Just had enough of doing “their” bidding, and getting nothing back in return. I need a pay rise, I believe I’ve earned it, just as most people in work in this country deserve one. I want to register my own protest, and a protest for all the AOs and AAs lower down the pay system than me who have it even tougher.

They are going to struggle to keep this so-called recovery going if the 1 in 6 of the working population who are in the public sector get no payrise again this year.

Only 10 teachers striking at my local school.

Power in numbers…

Its only the NUT striking.

The unions should unite and strike together at the same time.

Give will be laughing his head off on Thursday.

Gove!

Which shows qhat a massive **** he is.

Only the NUT striking of the teachers unions, but quite a few schools closing as a lot of admin and TA staff are members of other striking unions.

Whilst I am left leaning, I’m not a massive fan of striking, feeling that negotiation and discourse should be the way forward. However, this govt, and Gove in particular have shown that they are unwilling to do that. As MoreCash… says above, the public sector are being screwed for all they’re worth in the current ‘recovery’.

I became a teacher 6 years ago, so had one year with a pay rise and my wages have been frozen since then. I have moved up the main pay scale, but that will stop next year when I reach M6, and the introduction of performance related pay – i.e. an excuse for employers not to give you a raise, as they are skint due to budget cuts. My pension contributions have also gone up, but my final pension pot will decrease. How is any of this fair?
Teaching pays ok, but it’s not a route to untold riches! Considering the stress we are under to obtain results, and the constant changes to the curriculum, is it any wonder that 2 out of 5 leave the profession within 5 years?

AJANTOM i made the jump to upper pay scale this year. Next year your teaching has to be judged outstanding by the person managing the budget!!!

I know, it’s worrying me! Especially as my wife and I have just adopted a little girl, and I’ll be the only earner next year.

Striking is essentially terrorism, holding the country at ransom so they get their own way!

No, not really now is it. Most people will be carrying on as normal with it having no or very little effect on them.

I became a teacher 6 years ago, so had one year with a pay rise and my wages have been frozen since then. I have moved up the main pay scale, but that will stop next year when I reach M6

Surely if you’ve gone up the pay scale over the past 6 years, then your take home pay has actually gone up, therefore you’ve had a pay rise? Or am I missing something?

bloody terrorists going on strike. They should be banned from ever holding public office or something.

Gove, Edmonds and Yosser Hughes in the same pic!

😉

I think one day strikes are fairly pointless. If you are in dispute you shouldn’t return to work until a settlement has been negotiated.

One-day strikes definitely have their place, you don’t want to go nuclear at the first stage in a dispute.

Whether they will have any effect on this insane government is another matter.

I gave myself a payrise. I got off my backside and got a better paid job.

How awesome am I?

I gave myself a payrise. I got off my backside and got a better paid job.

At the moment a lot of the strikers wages are worth 15% less than they were 5 years ago because of a succession of below inflation wage rises.

They don’t want more, just not less.

They don’t want more, just not less.

And therein lies the aspirations of the public sector.

therein lies the aspirations of the public sector.

yep, but at least you get treated at a public sector hospital and your kids can be educated in a public sector school. All by worthless people with low aspirations.

And therein lies the aspirations of the public sector

Meet me in the ward sluice, 07:00 sharp, tomorrow morning.

I have plans for you. 😈