Strikes

Granbabies5

I qualified as a teacher but having taught for 10 years I then joined my husband in starting our own business. It all comes down to what people consider a “good” pension. We worked hard for ourselves for 25 years and built up our own pension to enable us to retire before state pension age. We forfeited holidays along the way and could never strike for more pay. We “cut our cloth to suit our needs” these days.
Some people expect too much , I think everyone should have a go at generating their own income and then they may appreciate the benefits they have.

I'm a teacher. I generate my own income. Earn 2/3 of what I used to earn in school, as a teacher/tutor. And I do it for about 1/6 of the work.

Teaching in British state schools is hell. And the hell isn't the students. It's a 40 hour week admin job, plus teaching hours on top.

I love teaching. I'm my best person in front of a class of 15 year olds. But I can't work a 70 hour week and do a good job.

I qualified as a teacher but having taught for 10 years I then joined my husband in starting our own business. It all comes down to what people consider a “good” pension. We worked hard for ourselves for 25 years and built up our own pension to enable us to retire before state pension age. We forfeited holidays along the way and could never strike for more pay. We “cut our cloth to suit our needs” these days.
Some people expect too much , I think everyone should have a go at generating their own income and then they may appreciate the benefits they have.

I support the strikes - this Tory government has tin ears and frankly doesn't care that almost all public sector employees have had their wages eroded badly over the 13 years of Tory rule. Sunak claims wage increases fuel inflation. If that were so he would have introduced wage restraint for private sector employees and directors of companies. Sauce for the goose....

I support the teachers and nurses as well, despite extra childcare.

Teachers pensions have been eroded, so this old myth of private sector pensions being lower is based on some past examples. Besides which, there are plenty in the private sector who get decent pensions as well as better salaries throughout their working life. We shouldn’t pit worker against worker, which is what our government is trying to do.

People never, ever strike for no reason.

Anyone could have foretold that this was going to happen.

You can’t squeeze a persons pay to no pay rise or the absolute minimum rise - in effect pay cuts year after year for at least the past ten years - in the name of austerity- then pile huge cost of living rises on them, together with enforcing much worse working conditions and expect no reaction.

People are not robots.

Germanshepherdsmum

I will be very unpopular for saying this, but teachers, nurses and other public sector workers may not receive huge salaries but they certainly get good pensions which enable them to retire at 55. It has to be viewed in the round - you can’t have it all ways. An increase in salary of course, but look at the total package compared with people in the private sector.

That are past times.

Not at all true now I’m afraid.

I support the strikes whether or not I need to help with childcare.

There ard too many myths out there about pensions I think!

I will certainly pick up any slack that's asked of me regarding GC during these testing times. Their parents are pretty self sufficient but last minute emergencies do sometimes occur.

I see we have the old chestnut about public sector workers having gold plated pensions. Many do not stay long enough to fully benefit but the real 'scandal' is the failure of unions representing private sector workers to negotiate better pensions for their members and the unwillingness of managerial staff in the private sector to unionize instead of moaning about public sector pensions which were obtained after negotiation by the relevant unions.

The main reason teachers are striking is that the pay rise offered by the government is t going to be fully funded by the government, the shortfall is expected to be found from the schools existing budgets. This means even less funding for teaching assistants, learning support assistants for SEN students, pastoral and admin staff and trips etc. Strikes are needed in this case, the pay rise should be fully funded by the government.

I’m not a teacher but I worked in school support before having my DC (who will be off and at home with me if their teachers strike).

Germanshepherdsmum

We’ve had some on the ‘how do they afford it’ thread, BlueBelle. I also have teachers in my family who have retired early on very good pensions.

Yes, and my bloke retired on a teachers pension. It is indeed a good one. But those pensions don't exist anymore. Huge changes have been made.

I am looking after my granddaughter on school strike days, we've had two already. We're in Scotland.
I am a retired teacher and I support the strikes. No one votes to strike if they have decent pay and conditions. If teachers, nurses, paramedics and firefighters are voting to strike it is because all other avenues of negotiating for decent pay and conditions have been exhausted.

Our daughter isn't a teacher but works in a secondary school in a pastoral role. She calls going into work every day as 'going to the hell hole'. And yes, before anyone says it, she is trying to find another job.

And yes, our grandchildren will be taken into work with us, because we are currently too short staffed to take any time off.

I’m a retired teacher. It was a stressful job in every way. I can see why they feel they deserve more. I don’t support the strike at this time however because children have already missed so much school because of the lockdowns. I have 7 GC and they have all been affected, 2 of them quite seriously. I feel the teachers should have waited until next academic year.

I honestly don’t know what to think, there was a time when I would have been very much against them, and I still don’t like to see nurses or teachers striking.

But I appreciate their careers, especially teachers, I don’t know as much about nurses, are soul destroying, and I’m sure strike action is a last resort for them, I really don’t know what the answer is, I can’t see how it can be resolved.

Yes I support the strikes

Working a teacher, I became very ill at 58, but was not eligible to retire until I was sixty. Sorry, but your post is inaccurate, GSM.

My husband worked in HR in local government, so he was able to help me negotiate the minefield.
I had no salary for six months until I reached sixty and then was able retire on ill health, long before I intended too.
Furthermore, my pension was not a great one, because I had only been teaching for twenty five years and I had just missed getting my state pension until sixty.
I didn't get it until last year at sixty six.

I just want to add:
Nurses and paramedics strikes are not just about our wages.

We are so short staffed most shifts are working with unsafe patient ;staff ratio.

The reason you should all support the nurses and other NHS staff is they are fighting to keep the NHS in situ. . Chronic underfunding in the last 12 years has led to this current crisis.
People are dying due to the lack of funding, staff are exhausted working with unsafe staffing levels on near enough every shift.
Wish people understood just how dire it is and equally pray you never need to be admitted into hospital to realise it.
We cannot attract nurses into the profession on such a small starting salary.

I am a 58 year old nurse and still working full time.

The lucrative pensions you speak of are a thing of the past I am afraid.
I am in favour of all the strikes. Public Sector wages are not and haven't for the last 12 years been in line with inflation.
The gap now is huge and people are quite rightly striking.

If you retire from teaching at 55 your pension is actuarially reduced. My SIL , a deputy head at a secondary school, will retire in two years time when he is 55 because the stress is taking such a toll on his physical and mental health. He is at school for 10 hours every day and then works at home for at least two hours in the evening plus at weekends. He also spends several Saturdays and evenings at school for parents’ events and four days there after GCSE and A Level results.
After retiring he will have to find another job since in spite of teaching from the age of 22, his pension will not be enough to live on.

These are the NHS pension rules.

‘It is age:

60 in the 1995 section
65 in the 2008 section
Members with special class status in the 1995 section may have the right to retire from a normal pension age of 55.

In the 2015 scheme, it's the same as your state pension age, or age 65 if that is later.

You might be able to claim your deferred benefits from age 55 if you:

held special class status, and
were made redundant before age 50 and have not rejoined the NHS Pension Scheme
You can find more details about NHS Pension Scheme benefits on the NHS Pensions website.’

The special class from the 1995 pension scheme was for people working in mental health or learning disabilities services, who were aged 50 or over when the 2008 scheme was introduced, so will all have retired now.

I was prepared to help out if required to look after grandchildren but fortunately only around a handful of teachers actually on strike at primary school so no need to close the school.

I regularly have to look after my GS anyway because my son and his partner work shifts, so we have to be there to pick up the pieces, as it were. The nature of their work mean they often have to work on after their shifts should have finished - usually at short notice - so we have no option but to keep GS with us, so the same goes for strikes. God knows how parents in similar situations manage if they don't have family nearby who can step in.