'There's nothing selfish about striking for profound change. It shows who cares'

06 February 2023 , 23:30

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Teacher strikes across the UK (Image: Getty Images)

My better half joined her colleagues from the ­teaching profession ­striking in central London last week.

She’d do it again. She’s proud of her long-term commitment to the kids she teaches. She cares about their academic wellbeing, whatever special needs they have and her part in creating a future for them.

Likewise my sister, a ­headteacher who’s had to discreetly provide breakfast for kids in her office and counsel parents in difficult situations. They don’t tell you about that kind of thing when they demonise teachers.

The critics carp at so-called selfish educators demanding better pay when the truth is they aren’t paid enough. Not when the time they hope to spend with their families is spent marking work and making lesson plans. Not when they return home late because a child’s mum or dad hasn’t picked them up.

We clap for carers then buy into the BS sold to us by politicians who don’t want to pay them what they are worth.

Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade

No one who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty or use a food bank. Yet many nurses, teachers, public sector workers and those who go beyond the call find themselves there when they should be rewarded for their efforts.

So when they say enough is enough, I back them. Sure it frustrates me not being able to go about my daily life. But I’ve been more frustrated at my kids sitting in classes of 30-plus because schools don’t have the teachers to reduce that number. I’ve been more frustrated waiting in A&E for more than four hours when they haven’t had the staff to cope with demand.

People are stretched to breaking point, forced to leave their professions rather than bust their bones for a pittance. Individuals like Mick Lynch are framed as “union barons” for simply articulating the concerns of those for whom striking is a last resort.

On Monday, 10 chief nurses warned the Government that its intransigence over NHS pay is placing patients in danger. It came as tens of thousands of workers staged the biggest strike in the NHS’s history.

Harry Truman said in 1952: “Socialism is a scare word they’ve hurled at every advance the people have made. Socialism is what they called public power, social security… anything that helps all people.”

In the US, two million hospitality and leisure jobs are unfilled in what ­economists are calling a “deep, profound” shift in the labour market.

Workers have had enough and traded up. Yet when people speak up in this country they are vilified as selfish. The truth is they use their voices because they care.

When Mrs L heads back to central London next time, I’ll be joining her.

Darren Lewis