Message from Teacher in England on the Strike

Sent to a friend:

Our public sector workers got a lot of bad press for striking.  Lots of teachers I know went on strike, but I didn't as my union hasn't voted for that at this stage.  One of our main issues (along with the similar issues you face) is that of our pensions.  We have two perks in teaching - good holidays and a good pension.  Our salaries do not equal our other professional counterparts, but knowing we would have a good pension have kept teaching unions quiet for a long time.  Unfortunately, the pension we all signed up to is being destroyed and the governement is asking us all to pay around £100 a month towards it, whilst our final pension will on average be worth £50,000 less! 

Who knows what will happen, but our current conservative government don't respond well to strikes (remember the miners of the 1980s!). 

The world isn't how it should be.  I'm currently marking GCSE religious studies papers and the main essay question is; "You should always stand up to unjust governments".... do you agree?  Quite apt at the moment eh?

Hope the cause is a success and things start to change for both sides of the Atlantic!

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