I agree with this strike. I think it's excellent the way that the NUT, UCU and PCS have coordinated action. Good luck.

Well I disagree. The public sector has done very well over the past few years and they should stop moaning.

I work in the public education (HE) sector myself so I know how much public support - and salaries - have gone up. Our wagebill has risen more than 6% in the past year and went up 7% the year before - that's bl**dy good by anyone's standards. And we still have gold-plated final salary pensions. Teachers have short hours and, generally, very good conditions of work thanks to Labour's investment in education. They won't be getting any sympathy from me if they disrupt my kids education. 

 If the following below is only partly true, then it's scandalous how poor conditions are for FE (further education) tutors. Horrendous even.

"41% of college lecturers are either agency staff or on yearly fixed contracts. Agency staff get no pension, negligible holiday and sick pay and have to pay themselves for a Criminal Records Bureau check every time they get a new job." "As I'm currently working through an agency I get next to nothing in the holidays and so work through them at private colleges that pay less than half my usual rate. If I didn't work throughout the holidays my pay would be around 9 grand a year! Even though I do more hours than my co-workers on full-time contracts I get well over ten grand a year less." and... "When I did my PGCE we were all told we'd get a 4 to 6 grand golden hello after our first year of teaching to pay off some of our debts. What they didn't tell us was that it was based on your overall hours and that you have to be directly employed to get it. There are bugger all full-time contracts around, especially in your first year of teaching. Worse still, agency staff are not eligible to apply, even though they do the same hours and the same job and it's usually the only work available."

I think we should pay teachers based on results.

"We should be supporting public sector workers!" And sod the consumers.

Again, my hypothesis about a shift to the left is emphasised.

Today, the only protests against a strike were from 2 types of people:

1) Were cretins who believe in something called 'common sense' politics. Reductionism is sometimes valid, but those who adhere to 'common sense' politics resort to platitudes and assertions. They are saying that teachers are getting all sorts of perks. They imagine them to work a 9-3 job, with long holidays. This is absolute rubbish. Teachers often have to teach in the grimmest areas, often with inadequate funding. They get to school, at 7:30, and have meetings with parents and management after school, as well as a stack of marking to do. Jeer all you like, but this is harder work than many can imagine.

2) Were mothers worried about childcare. But if you watched the new, when these people came on: what did you hear? They were saying that they were concerned about childcare costs, but the vast majority supported the teachers' demands. A couple of years ago, a Teachers' strike, like most, would have been dismissed as the work of loony-left, namby-pambies.

But look at our controversies at the moment. They are not the 1997 era's problems. People are more concerned about public sector wages, the 10p tax rate, non-doms, private equity etc. The teachers' demands are perfectly reasonable. They are accepting a pay raise half the rate of unofficial inflation: the figure widely being circulated, as the true additional costs to food and energy bills, is around 8%. The unions are demanding 4.1%. Where are your priorities Mr. Brown? Support pay raises for the nurses, the police, and also the teachers.

The NUT are doing their best to prepare consumers for a change in Government.
Central planning, central control of admissions, dumbing down of standards..
The NUT do not protest about those issues.

They opposed League tables and any measurement of performance, removing incompetent teachers.


Any parent with children at school is going to support the NUT.. not.

At least they are consitent. Wrong all the time..
Arthur Scargill would be proud of them.

 Wales to day from Welsh Assembly, large numbers of teachers are to be made redundant due to falling number of pupils, also massive school closure problem, details due to cost savings.

Is this just a kick up the back side to teachers or is it real, well it's real money is short in Wales.

"Being compared to Arthur Scargill is still something to be proud of for many of us! "

Well yes: I support people who destroy useless unions as well.