#teachers strike

[nights-are-better]

it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers. it shouldn’t be a joke that people are broke in certain careers.

PAY YOUR WRITERS LIVEABLE WAGES. PAY YOUR HEALTH CARE WORKERS LIVEABLE. PAY TEACHERS LIVEABLE WAGES.

PAY YOUR WORKERS LIVEABLE WAGES

PAY PEOPLE SO THEY CAN LIVE

[iww-gnv]

The Newton Teachers Association (NTA) is facing increasing pressure to end its strike and reopen Newton Public Schools after nine days of closure. But now, one of the most iconic bands to ever come out of Massachusetts is letting everyone know that they support the union. On Wednesday, the NTA posted a video to its Facebook page of the Dropkick Murphys — a Celtic punk band from Quincy — issuing a message to the striking teachers. “We’re the Dropkick Murphys sending our love, solidarity and support out to all the teachers on the picket line. Thank you for all you do,” lead singer Ken Casey says in the video.

[racefortheironthrone]

There was a classic Simpsons episode where Springfield Elementary teachers went on strike, and the PTA responded by bringing in residents (including Marge Simpson) as replacement teachers. Would this count as union busting or crossing the picket line? If yes, I wonder why it was depicted as largely benevolent considering that Simpsons writers and plots tend to lean liberal.

Let's not mince words, it's 100% scabbing. It's not just crossing a picket line as a customer, it's crossing a picket line in order to work as non-union temporary labor, with the intent to crush the strike.

I don't agree that it's depicted as benevolent behavior - the whole gag of the middle portion of the episode is that the scabs are terrible fucking teachers. Frink is completely wasted in preschool and doesn't let the kids play with toys, Jasper is a physically abusive idiot who gets his beard stuck in a pencil sharpener, and Moe and the like are total pushovers when it comes to Bart's pranks. The only one who can manage a classroom at all is Marge, and even then she's incredibly embarrassing and unprofessional with Bart. (Notable difference compared to how she does in "Whacking Day.")

Also, it's not necessarily the case that Simpsons writers are always left-leaning. John Swartzwelder is notoriously incredibly conservative and his scripts tended to push his libertarian views pretty strongly.

[ineffectualdemon]

In this house we support unions and strike action

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Amid negotiations between various unions and the Quebec government, CEGEPs will be affected by another strike action. This time, workers represented by the Syndicat de professionnelles et professionnels du gouvernement du Québec (SPGQ) will strike on Nov. 23 and 24, unless an agreement is reached by then. Union members are following in the footsteps of the 65,000 primary and secondary school teachers with the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE), who will be on unlimited general strike from Nov. 23.

Continue Reading.

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

NEU members have votes to reject the crap pay deal on offer.

New Strike dates called for 27th April and 2nd May.

The turnout on this vote was higher than the original indicative ballot for strike action.

Gillian Keegan said her offer was final, but our engagement is growing, more people are coming over to the NEU all the time, our arguments are cutting through.

The NEU is in this for the long haul.

[guilty-feminist]

[maximura]

I watch so much kpop and documentaries about South Korea that I get a lot of recommendations on youtube. Just now, I saw this video which features at least 50,000 teachers rallying and protesting against the strict SK Law where a teacher is automatically suspended if they are accused of child abuse.

TW: Suicide

This comes about 2 months after a 23 yo teacher was found dead (by suicide) at their school following an alleged situation of being bullied by a parent. Teachers are now so afraid of the Child Abuse Law (mentioned above) that they feel they cannot effectively intervene and mediate when one student bullies/abuses another, for fear of retribution and losing their job. So bullying amongst students may just proceed without teacher intervention. This was eye opening to know and very important context next time we hear a story about an idol being accused of bullying.

To add to that, I learnt today that parents are allowed to repeatedly ring the teachers directly (even at night and on weekends?!) to complain and scold them. The education environment is highly volatile already but add competition and parental pressure to the mix and I'm quite frankly surprised the whole SK education system hasn't imploded yet.

Previously a family may have several children but as more parents are only having one child, they only have one shot "at success".

Sucks to be that one child bearing all the pressure.

No wonder mental health is so poor amongst young people. South Korean has consistently had the highest suicide rate in developed nations (I hate that word). Suicide is the leading cause of death in SK for those aged 10 to 39yo. That is a very very deeply concerning and sad statistic. I had to read that twice to process it. This is a very young demographic and the fact that nothing much has changed since I looked into this issue 3 years ago is troubling.

South Korea is a superficially pretty visage hiding a diseased underbelly. It is a society held together by some very pretty band-aids. I don't believe it will function that efficiently in a few decades unless there are meaningful reforms and changes. Not least because they are losing their young people at an alarming rate but also because the birth rate is so low. It's all the bad things, all the time.

You know that movie, No Country For Old Men? Well, South Korea is No Country For Young People.

My thoughts are with anyone who receives any threats and bullying/harassment at work. I hope a change will come soon and we can all go to work without being worried for our personal safety and life. This is so unacceptable. It's 2023 for goodness sake.

[songofwizardry]

it’s strike evening! tomorrow teachers in england and wales start on a series of discontinuous strike days, over teacher pay and funding.

i have had this long post of anecodates the state of state education right now sitting in my drafts for months. but i think it’s a good time to share it. there are no graphs or national statistics—you can get those from the neu, and if you’re reading this you probably know them already. but i think it’s worth sharing the personal side of why we’re striking as well. this is very disconnected, and rambly, and frustrated, but here goes:

i’m a physics graduate. i trained to teach at one of the largest ITT providers in the country a few years ago. there were about 25-30 physics trainees in this batch

at least ten have already left the profession, or left the country to teach elsewhere. this is not including people who left state education to teach in independent schools, or people who dropped out during the training year

i trot this statistic out a lot, because it’s shocking—this year, we have recruited one physics teacher for every eight state schools in england. that’s just trainees recruited. several of them will drop out during the training. even more will leave during their induction period (25% of new teachers leave within two years). it gets worse every year

over the last two years, i have watched my school (a comprehensive secondary) try to replace, or find long-term supply, for several staff—maths teachers, science teachers, MFL teachers, technicians, pastoral staff, etc. pretty much every time, it’s taken at least 3 months to find a long-term replacement. the ‘revolving door of supply staff’ is very true, and supply staff are also hard to find

nationally, schools are ridiculously tight on money. this hits the poorest areas and kids worse—we push up every class to 32 students because that means more money for the school, we turn what were previously free trips into paid ones because schools can’t afford to cover the costs, we turn off the heating at 4pm, we cut TAs and extra-curriculars and sports and equipment budgets. this is a funding crisis as well as a staff pay crisis. a non-funded pay rise is useless

these are not hypotheticals btw—they have happened and are happening in my school and in schools near me. we are cutting trips, clubs, TAs, mentoring support, you name it. if it can be cut it will be.

the easiest way to cut costs is by cutting down on staff. so all our timetables are as full as it is legally possible to be. there is no breathing room. one class can be shared by multiple staff to make this timetable mess work. staff are stretched to their limit, and if someone falls sick long term, there’s no staff free to cover and – see above – we cannot recruit! so we return to a revolving door of supply staff (whom we also can’t get)

the cuts to additional support affect kids with SEND needs, emotional needs, kids who are having a hard time, etc the most. i cannot tell you the number of kids i have who need a TA or a mentor and don’t get one, need counselling, need a reader, need a scribe, need 1-to-1 EAL support, etc..... it goes on

and at the same time social services across the board have been slashed after years of tory austerity. camhs is a mess, the nhs has no money, youth services are gone, libraries and community centres are shut—we are trying to fill a gaping hole, with no goddamn money

and on the note of staff pay—support staff especially don’t get paid enough, but across the board, I’m hearing of colleagues using food banks, not being able to afford heating or feeding themselves or children, struggling to make rent, etc. especially for early career teachers, it’s not enough. I know of plenty of colleagues who took on additional responsibility way earlier than they wanted or were ready for, because it means extra pay, and the standard salary isn’t enough to live on.

couple that with the fact that in a subject like maths or science, there are plenty of entry-level jobs that pay much better, and it’s no surprise people aren’t coming into the profession.

i care deeply for my students. i want the best for them. they deserve teachers who are not overworked, exhausted, and bitter. they deserve subject specialists, not four months of rotating supply teaching their GCSE chemistry class. they deserve staff who feel valued, and thus stick around long enough that they can build relationships with them. they deserve enough lab equipment, textbooks, glue sticks. they deserve extra curriculars and trips they don’t have to pay for, that aren’t funded out of whatever I can spare from my own tight budget that month. they deserve dedicated TA support where they need it, again, with TAs who are valued and have time to build connections with them and support them.

and i am also tired, and i care deeply for my colleagues. we all deserve better.

so i am striking tomorrow, for my students, and my colleagues, and myself, because i deeply love this profession and it deserves so much better than a government that clearly doesn’t value educators or education. if you can, join us on the picket line at your local school, or at a march! there’s a strike map in the notes.

[tweetingukpolitics]

[daisy-mooon]

"Nooo the teachers can't go on strike, what about the teenagers that need to study for their exams?"

Teenager studying for exams here. If the government can't give a single flying fuck about our teachers, why should I give a single flying fuck about my grades?

[iww-gnv]

NEWTON, Mass. — A teachers strike in a Boston suburb entered its eighth day Tuesday — one of the longest in recent state history — with both sides still unable to agree on salaries and other issues, and tensions fraying. The Newton School Committee on Tuesday said it made another revised offer to the Newton Teachers Association, which it described as “a fair and competitive offer that addresses the concerns that the NTA has expressed to the negotiating team and publicly.” “Throughout the duration of the strike, we have presented increasingly competitive (cost of living adjustment) proposals, even when compared to the highest-paying peer districts,” the committee said in a statement. The union has said it is seeking living wages for all employees, increased paid family leave time and a guarantee that social workers will be placed in every elementary and middle school.

[abubblingcandle]

Sorry for the influx of teacher strike stuff but just hit me again.

So I realised that if I strike all of the strike days this month then that’s three days without pay. So went to go apply for the hardship fund from my union.

Only to find out that the amount I am losing per day is ... £18.80

Put sensibly - I get paid a take home wage of £18.80 a day. That’s £2.35 an hour.

And people wonder why teachers are striking

[mx-smileo]

Aggie.io drawing againn-

this time referring to actual shit happening where I live and throughout the whole country.. the teachers strikes due to inflation

Prolly not going to school on some days due to this~ sadge

[thebrokenbottleboy]

I went through coverage of the teachers' strike and broke down just how much bullshit there is from broadcasters and newspapers alike, including the BBC

"That twist is followed by this chart:

You can’t teach a lesson without planning a lesson; without marking you can’t tell how students are responding to and learning from teaching; your school can’t have data on pupil performance or function as an organisation without management and admin; interacting with pupils and parents is also an intrinsic part of teaching. ‘Other’ likely includes things like assisting with extra-curricular activities and taking part in professional development. All the chart demonstrates is that The Daily Telegraph is either ignorant about what teachers do or playing at ignorance in service of its ideology (I lean heavily towards the latter)..."

Read the rest here.

[reallooney]

Dude, FUCK these guys and their stupid ass headline. Framing this as on oversight on behalf of the union rather than, oh idk, the injustices that forced them to strike in the first place.

And the quote is pulled from something a parent said—literally not anybody involved with the strike.

The district should’ve thought through forcing these teachers to work in incredibly unsafe work environments, for criminally low pay. I get losing (half of) Christmas break sucks but like, the conditions these teachers are in. I’ve seen it firsthand. It’s fucking scary.

It is worth losing half of Christmas break (literally one time. These people bitching about having to change plans as if COVID wasn’t/isn’t a thing. You’ve done it before. Somehow I’m sure you’ll find a way to do it again. Boo-hoo.) to ensure that these teachers are safe and fairly compensated. Jfc