I am teacher. I am a member of Union and I strongly believe in Workers’ Rights. But on Friday I changed unions from one that believed in strike action- although didn’t strike this time, to one that doesn’t.
Strike action doesn’t work.
I think the Trades Union movement is a positive one. Yet, when I began my career, 15 a student teacher we were told that our union, whichever we chose, was there to protect us from litigation: not to protect and champion our rights but to advocate on our behalf, in this compensation crazed culture.
I have been part of ‘industrial action short of strike’ for my entire teaching career: to absolutely no end. There was/is a campaign to get pay parity with other teaching staff across the UK: as a Head of Department I am being short change approximately £11k each year by the treasury, so somebody somewhere owes me and every HoD and Middle Manager a huge sum of money that just doesn’t exist.
Do I think that education is creation of the rest of the economy and as such should be a government spending priority? Absolutely. Do I realise that such capital doesn’t exist in these austere times ( and yes money could be better spent and much more efficiently allocated but it won’t be)? Absolutely. Am I currently, alongside many other public sector workers in the UK financially worse off than I have ever been: as salaries fail to keep pace with increased living costs and we are paying more into pensions to work longer and get less? Absolutely.
On the day that I did strike: teachers and other public sector workers were vilified by social and traditional media. Working parents complained that they had to give up a day’s pay to mind their children: reducing my role to that of a babysitter. I was jepordising my pupils’ education and their well-being. There was limited come back from my union or others. It compromises educational advancement to have a teaching staff that feels so overworked, undermined and under valued that their mental and physical health pays the toll.
There were those at my school, members of the same striking union who went to work on that day of industrial action and faced no union discipline. There was no financial nor working condition gain from that day: I lost a day’s salary and made to feel that I had betrayed the vocation I had spent a decade serving.
Strike action doesn’t work.
My better half works for the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service: their strike action was circumnavigated this week by management declaring ‘major incident’ status: meaning staff would be in breach of contract if they didn’t attend work. ‘Major incident’ is the current state of our grossly under funded NHS: the media scaremongered that lives would be put at risk by striking unions: lives are put at risk and lost every day because of a lack of NHS funding.
Strike action doesn’t work.
As a child of Thatcher’s Britain: I have news memories, sharpened by repeated viewings of Billy Elliot and Brassed Off, of the Miners’ Strike. The violence, the endless endurance of mining families and the closure of pit after pit because the government deemed it so. They have the power: we give it to them. These images ingrained upon our social history are significant proof that…
Strike action doesn’t work.
The majority of my extended family are self-employed within the AgriFood business. I constantly rally against the misconceptions of my working hours: they are not 9am-3pm, justify my holidays and try in vain to make the argument for public sector pensions. That my graduate value in education is much less than it could be in certain private sector jobs falls on deaf ears. That I make and have made increasing contributions for less recompense also go ignored.
Strike action is not within the private sector mindset: if my family didn’t work, we didn’t eat (nor, as they are farmers, would the general population). It is regarded as moaning about our lot, instead of working to change it.
Teachers, nurses, ambulance service staff didn’t create the financial global crisis: nor did we really reap the benefits of the boom years- beyond the endless credit alloted to our now negative equity properties: but we will have to shoulder more than our share of the burden of its cost. I don’t understand the complexities of economics but I understand that. Industrial action will not replenish the budget: strike action doesn’t work.
I understand that unions resort to strike action ad the final weapon in their arsenal. I understand that they are driven to a public demonstration of discontent because private demonstrations have resulted in deadlocked status quo. But I also understand that Union ballot turnout is abysmally low: members are disengaged, a small minority vote in industrial action ballots and a smaller number vote for it.
Strike action doesn’t work.
I wish I could offer an alternative to strike action that did work. Proper negotiation seems the most likely: and is the desired outcome of strike action. I sincerely support a means of championing the right of workers across all sectors and the actions of unions in making the workplace a fairer, safer and more productive place to be.
