Comments on: Scabs

By: Ranting Teacher

Ranting Teacher — Mon, 05 May 2008 09:00:47 +0000

I suppose it depends on your background. If you grew up in a working class family that donated money to the miners’ strike fund, and where family members would pay their subs or dues regularly at monthly meetings, and where shop stewards were discussed over the evening meal, then you have a good idea of the power of the Union.

Then again I don’t know how people could have lived through times of black-outs and bread shortages, striking dockers and miners, and be oblivious to it all.

Altogether now:

Would you have freedom from wage slavery,
Then join in the grand Industrial band;
Would you from mis’ry and hunger be free,
Then come! Do your share, like a man.
CHORUS:
There is pow’r, there is pow’r
In a band of workingmen.
When they stand hand in hand,
That’s a pow’r, that’s a pow’r
That must rule in every land –
One Industrial Union Grand.

(Joe Hill)

or a bit more contemporary:

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand
There is power in a Union

Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers’ blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses’ way, sir

The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a Union

Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who’ll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?

Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union

The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union.

(Billy Bragg)

By: Lilyofthefield

Lilyofthefield — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:27:03 +0000

God no. Teaching is boring.

By: oldandrew

oldandrew — Sun, 04 May 2008 07:16:27 +0000

Do you mean this one: http://oldandrew.edublogs.org/2008/05/03/god/ ?

Who do you think is going to become a teacher? Ryan?

By: Lilyofthefield

Lilyofthefield — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:02:37 +0000

“many teachers don’t have the vaguest clue what a trade union is for”

Why are you surprised? The conversation in your May blog was not, presumably, conducted amongst the thickest and least knowledgable specimens at school. Some of them, lacking even the most basic general knowledge that does not form part of the requirement for getting a C at GCSE, may well in time become teachers. It comes as no surprise at all to me that many have no idea what a Trade Union is beyond a bunch of robbers who take a chunk of salary every month for what.

By: oldandrew

oldandrew — Sat, 03 May 2008 08:25:20 +0000

This may be of interest:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news/uk/video/170000/bb/170786_16×9_bb.asx

By: Chris Curtis

Chris Curtis — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:29:49 +0000

I made a couple of posts on The Times News site in support of English teachers, but they had not been published last time I looked. I believe in unionism and I am disappointed that teachers in Victoria do not all support their union. However, one strike will not do it. The Australian Education Union has been campaigning for 18 months for a better deal on pay and conditions and runnning an impressive media campaign as well as stopping work. It looks like a deal is close, which means according to press reports that the government has moved from an offer of 3.25 per cent a year to one of c15 per cent to bring Victorian teachers up to NSW pay levels (though that may not happen in just one year). Remember that Victorian conditions are already streets ahead of the rubbish you put up with England - classes generally capped at 21 in prep to year 2, at an average of 26 in primary schools and at 25 in secondary schools, lower teaching loads, no inspection, etc. , but they are not good enough for teachers here, and it is the united and intelligent determnation of teachers that won what they have already and will win any improvements. Perhaps if English teachers knew bad they had it on an international basis they would be more willing to act. Good luck.

By: Granny Smythe

Granny Smythe — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:28:02 +0000

Yes. I couldn’t understand the attitude of many colleagues who were umming and ahhing ’shall I go on strike’ and I heard many of these excuses.

If your union is on strike, you are on strike, end of story.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:46:25 +0000

The point of teaching and the reason teachers work are two entirely different things.

I think the strike is pretty silly myself, but think a protest over behaviour/paperwork/this week’s new policy etc. would be far more pointed - and may attract more support because they (first one especially) impact on education directly.

However, if you are in a union, you should (unless there’s a very good reason) operate as a group. If you are pretty anti-striking, why join the NUT in the first place ?

If you think the strike is stupid/wrong or whatever, then simply resign and join NASUWT, ATL or PAT (depending on *how* strongly you feel this).

By: News is Good

News is Good — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:11:25 +0000

Just to say that I support your post on the Guardian weblog:
“The point of a strike is not to win public support, it is to get a better deal.”

If the point of teaching is to make parents happy then teachers - and education - will be ripped asunder under the weight of all the different expectations and priorities that would have to be weighed up for each and every class.