matt b
Indexing all opinion
Yeah but they only work 9-4 and they get loads of time off in the summer!
8.30 til 4, thanks
and only 6 weeks off in the summer.
Industrial Action
- Thread starter jenks
- Start date
8.30 til 4, thanks
and only 6 weeks off in the summer.
jenks
thread death
Yeah but they only work 9-4 and they get loads of time off in the summer!
Watch it Eden!
Interesting comments here. I agree with Matt B that withdrawing your labour is about the only power that we have some times
How many of those parents who have had to take time off to look after their kids think its a good idea that the teachers are on strike? (instead of a day of self indulgence I too am looking after both my kids as tehir primary school is shut)
Vimothy - we all know that the govt is not going to give a 10% rise to anyone (including themselves) but increases in the 2% range is rubbish
Anyway, whilst this has centred on school teachers I think it is interesting how certain branches of the labour force are far less sympathetically treated even here - tube workers for example. It can't be all Crowe's doing (and is he seen as a tit cos he does sound like a throwback to the 70s, complete with regional accent and diction out of central casting?)
crackerjack
Well-known member
There are some very rich GPs who might disagree with you there.
jenks
thread death
I stand corrected
crackerjack
Well-known member
Speaking for myself, he's seen as a tit because the tube workers went on strike in support of a driver sacked for playing squash while on extended leave with a 'bad back'; because last year's strike was, in Ken Livingstone's words, just about the only case in memory of a union walking out when theyd got virtually everything they'd asked for; because even union members will, inn unguarded moments, admit they do it because they can and because they know how powerful their position is; and because Crow wrote a piece in the guardian at the time of the Rio Ferdinand affair trying to paint the whole thing as a class war between the FA and the PFA.
Regional accents have zilch to do with it. How else would you expect the leaders of a working class union to speak?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Not to mention the strike in support of a couple of LU workers who were sacked after hundreds of empty beer cans were found in their station cubbyhole, the strike over the new uniforms (oh my God, they're BLUE! How AWFUL!), the fact that drivers get £35k and it's the most expensive urban metro system in the world...the fact that Crowe tries to paint his activities as some sort of Jarrow March-esque 'struggle' doesn't exactly help his public image, either.
jenks
thread death
I expect them to speak with regional accents but I think the media enjoy parodying this.
Obviously a union which represents a predominantly working class job will have a leader who speaks like them. I think in this highly slick age of media training it is getting harder to find the voice (accent and attitude) of the unions.
I found it ironic that when Labour got into power in 97 people thought that the presence of John Prescott as Deputy would ensure that Labour's roots would be kept in contact with - purely because he spoke with a regional accent, whereas anyone who had studied the man would have realised he wanted as little to do with the unions and the past of the party as possible
john eden
male pale and stale
I think it's difficult to gauge that really - most people I know are sympathetic, but then they would be, wouldn't they?
I think there's a lot of snobbery about tube drivers and a lot of bollocks talked about their reasons for striking.
The guy playing squash, for example, had been told to do a bit of light exercise by his physio. Funny how that never made it onto the front page of the Evening Standard.
Also people forget how many times the tube workers have gone on strike over safety issues - a subject which of course affects commuters as much as drivers. You would think that might suggest that commuters and drivers have a common interest and that the management should be treated with suspicion?
john eden
male pale and stale
crackerjack
Well-known member
Ha ha, that was one of those vacuous notions that only ever made sense to people who absorb the whole world through a press release. I guess he might have been a reassuring presence to old union friends (though not, ironically, his old union, the RMT, which was the first(?) to disaffiliate from Labour), but he was never going to wield much influence over B&B.
matt b
Indexing all opinion
Buns & Bulemia?
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
comelately
Wild Horses
Playing Devil's Advocate a teensy bit, won't every teacher get to rise a point up the pay spine, thus gaining a pay increase somewhat over 2.5%?
matt b
Indexing all opinion
not if they're at the top of their spine they won't
comelately
Wild Horses
I'd be genuinely interested to know how many teachers are at the top of their pay spines. And even so, those teachers will have likely received pay increases through that mechanism in previous years. If somebody reaches the top if their payscale, then in many cases they can look for actual promotion. These more-or-less automatic rises up the pay scale are still worth factoring into the debate. In the private sector it can be quite tough to get a significant pay increase for doing the same job as you were before.
Don't get me wrong, I am on the whole sympathetic to the teacher's case for more money. But I honestly think there's a sizeable minority of teachers are on a fairly easy ride, and are in the profession mainly for that reason.