What a shower of liars, hypocrites and propaganda merchants this coalition are...

Love how they are now talking about a minimum turn out for strikes to be "legitimate".

Maybe they should also apply that to elections and government

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

This is the main thing, it turns out I have trained under false pretences. As well as the whole pensions matter, our starting wage is not that high but was guaranteed to rise for the first 6 years, now that is at the whim of the Head.

MarioKempes I agree that that is the way of the private sector, but that is only because people have allowed it (I confess I have no knowledge about what powers, if any, private sector employees have to stop it). The public sector is not about to sit back and let us also have rubbish terms and pensions just because others have allowed it to happen to them. We all need to fight back, not give up just because others have before us.

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

How's your lass getting on, balancing a family life with work?

Our lass goes to work at 7:30 am gets home at 8:30 pm, has a rant about work, eats the tea I've made her, has a bath and goes to bed. That's it, that's all I see of her. Holidays are good, no question, but ******* hell, she does some work in term time. It takes her a full week to come down when the holidays come around and most weekends she's totally wired. Don't know how teachers cope when they've got kids. Plenty of men have hard jobs too like, but they tend not to be the primary care givers, while lots of teachers are women.

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

Pretty much same here. She's gone by half 7 at latest, home 5 ish, has an hour with the bairn then works. Piece o piss obviously....

She's got 6 weeks soon to try and get he sanity back.

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

Private sector's on its arse, because nobody has any money to spend. Massive generalisation like, because certain niche areas are doing well, but generally things are tight. Unless you're a hedge fund manager or summat.

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

Are you my husband?

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

I'm sure the strike is fully justified and I have no complaints with that. But I doubt the figures you are quoting above regarding having 18 months to live after retiring at 65 are correct?... I work in an office for a construction company and my life expectancey must be longer than the operatives out on site. I'd guess mine must be around the same as a teacher, not so for the Brick layers, scaffolders etc. who must have a shorter life expectancy?

Again, just to clarify I'm not doubting the strike is not for the right reason. I just dont agree with those figures.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18952037

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

Its a difficult one.

I disagree with much of the coalition policies.

Running my own DJ agency things have been very difficult in our industry over the last 8 years. I earned 4k less than last year & 8k less than 3 years ago.
My hourly rate is way below the minimum wage & I have no pension or health insurance. If next year is worse I will be quitting. I'm a member of the Musician's Union, but there is no way we can take any action, or do anything basically.

 

Re: Yes but... Interesting statistic...

I've heard similar figures bandied around a lot and like you I also question them. I've never seen any official statistics to back them up. If they're true, it's a national scandal and needs addressing now. But are they?

I also think the strike is fully justified. Again, this is just about those figures, the accuracy of which will not change my opinion on the strike.

 

An older person may have a more positive effect on some of our modern kids

 

It is funded my me
A tax payer

 

Sorry in that case you are simply in the wrong job.

 

Hunt has even gone back on paying the 1% to nurses knowing, as everyone does, that for a variety of reasons they'll not strike.

 

errm, it's not actually. It is an oblate spheroid.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-not-round/

 

The figure comes from...

...The Teachers pension actuarial figures. (albeit a few years old now) One of the reasons the Pension fund is viable at a guess . Not sure that 'working in an office' is comparable. Many jobs are hard but also, as another poster used a Building site operative for an example, many people leave at whatever hour and get on with their lives unlike self employed etc who are always 'working'. The difference for teachers are the stress levels comparable with self employed but added to which is the lack of control of their working day as well as constant change from Government . It is the stress from feeling undervalued and lack of control and feeling powerless that causes stress and high mortality rates.

In short teaching kids is not the problem it is all the unnecessary 'baggage' that comes with the job and people who have idea wading in.

I'm married to a now-retired (thank-God) primary teacher of 38 years who had more than enough stressful situations for one lifetime.

 

Re: The figure comes from...

The NUT used Govt accounting methods a few years back -2007 I think, which showed that since its inception in the 1920's - the Teacher's pension fund had a surplus of about £40billion - ie money taken out was less than put in over its lifetime. The fund is within general govt income, so not a stand alone fund. As such, the govt can use the money in there for other things - yet now they have to pay out, the goalposts suddenly change.

 

Like

We have a great democracy tha knows

 

Been on strike today with firefighters, teachers, care worker, council workers, housing officers and on and on. Lots of people who on the whole choose to work in the public sector because of a desire to help people. Not the wages, pensions, terms or anything. But, quite rightly, when these are being eroded we are standing up for ourselves