"Most teachers I know are absolutely burned out with the combination of the stress and low pay"
She has spent 40 years teaching and recently took strike action. Karen is against the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill and believes we must protect the right to strike
Karen told the TUC: “The government’s Strikes Bill feels like a real slap in the face. During the epidemic we were praised as key workers and ministers clapped for us.
Now, we are being faced with draconian legislation which I believe is totally uncalled for. Under these proposals, we face the sack if we take legal strike action that has been democratically voted for.
The right to strike is a basic human right. It’s the only real right we have as workers, and without it the employers hold all the strings. We don’t have a voice and can’t defend our pay and services.
No one goes on strike willy nilly. We only take strike action when all the other options open to us have been exhausted. I’ve spent the last 20 years working with children with autism, and I know how important their routine is, so I hate to disrupt it. But sometimes it’s the only way we get employers and ministers to listen.
Pay negotiations have been dragged out here for more than a year – it's only by taking targeted strike action we’ve been able to get a fair and acceptable pay deal. But we haven’t been on strike just for pay – it's also to protect and future-proof the education service.
We are struggling to recruit and retain teachers. The pay has been held down for so long that people see you can’t make any money in teaching anymore. Most teachers I know are absolutely burned out with the combination of the stress and low pay – and I know teachers who’ve taken second jobs in pubs just to get by.
We aren’t even filling the training places now as not enough people are applying. That’s such a worry for the future of education. When I started out as a teacher there was real competition for those places. It was tough to get on the courses.
Teachers work hard to give their pupils the very best they can. We work way over our hours. I’m part-time now as I’m coming to the end of my career – I did retire but came back into teaching due to the staff shortages.
“When I was full-time I was easily doing 55-60 hours a week, I didn’t take breaks, and I worked evenings and weekends.
I didn’t object because I was doing it for the children. Success isn't just about passing exams. For example, I had one pupil come to me as a selective mute and his life chances had been written off. But by the time he left my school he was talking freely; he got an apprenticeship and now he’s working. That’s why we do it.
But the system is broken. We need change. Teachers are leaving our schools to work in private schools or teach abroad – or they’re leaving the profession completely. That’s not right.
I have only taken strike action for a pay claim once before, and this was in 1984 shortly after I started teaching. And it’s sad to be finishing my career 40 years later in a position where we have had to strike again.
But it’s vital we have that right. If I or any of my colleagues were sacked for taking legal strike action that we voted for overwhelmingly, our school would have lost highly skilled members of staff who always go even more than that extra mile.
Ministers must protect the right to strike and ditch this unfair Bill for good.”
