Another day off to enjoy the weather: http://www.stratford-herald.com/55020-some-schools-closed-for-strike-action.html

Yet if parents don't send their kids to school they get fined!

I wonder just how many parents are inconvenienced by this action today?

No doubt, it was the usual headache for parents - having to arrange last minute childcare/day off. From my experience, most teachers are incompetent idlers who think they deserve a day's pay because they managed to stumble into the office (at least at the school I went to).

I think things have changed a lot since those days Lex.Even when I went to school they all seemed very dedicated to their jobs. Oh yes some had power-images of themselves But I've found most of them nowadays are dedicated.
What do you do if bosses won't even listen?How can you even talk to them if you are being ignored and the work piles on and on until many can't cope with the workload, so they go off sick -or leave, making us short of teachers.. I blame the bosses for not listening. If they did there could be some kind of compromise.
I'd strike too.

My experience of school was chalk and talk, coupled with plenty of gratuitous violence.

I've no direct experience of teachers today, but a few years back when my kids were at school you'd have been hard pressed to get me to urinate on a teacher if they were on fire. I really have never met such a bunch of useless wasters.

I have plenty of experience of the further education sector, and they are strangled with pointless paperwork and in-house politics. Some are there for an easy ride, but many are dedicated and go out of their way to assist students.

It could be the case that things have improved over the years, or it could just be the school I went to - even to this day I talk to former pupils bemoan the standards there.

May I ask which school was that?

I went to KHVIII. The references I made about my children's school referred to Caludon Castle.

I went to Trinity School in Warwick.

Another teachers' strike. Someone at the NEU seems to have got mixed up over the dates - they've only given themselves one long weekend: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8x9qpp2jkko

Another one: https://coventryobserver.co.uk/news/tea ... ews-61498/

I look back on the response from cathidaw on an earlier strike. A strike ballot of union members happens after all other avenues are exhausted and you are getting nowhere. Many are called off at the 11th hour when a company comes back to the negotiating table, however, we are all fully aware of the impact financially on families and union members, also the need to try and arrange other childcare, but if, after talks and negotiating it seems they are not being listened to then there is a chance of strike action or those issues go on and on and on add infinitum. Sitting around a negotiating table both sides might need to give a little to reach an agreement but if one side is not prepared to do that then you are stuck between a rock and a hard place so some action needs to be taken, but again, not until the when all else fails point arrives.

Strikes rarely benefit those striking. As someone who spent many years in the motor industry, I suspect that I might know a little about this.