Coming from a family of Lectures, Teachers and so on, I feel I have a front line view.
My father runs a University, he get's paid hansomly but at the same time, has more or less devoted his life in doing so, he set off at 8am and gets home for 6pm, but then everynight bar weekends, without fail he will be working part 10pm.
My little brother is in his first year as a Maths teacher, and got a lovely golden handshake of umpteen thousands for becoming one. The workload he has at the moment it massive, but this is due to the fact he is new and has all his lesson plans and such to make from scratch.
My best friends Mother is a English teacher and has been for decades, she has stunning A level and GCSE results year in year out, but she barley breaks a sweat these days, sure she has marking to do of a night, but it's all done in such a manor by now it's water off a ducks back.
My little cousin is a primary school teachers, and I never see her breaking much of a sweat after 5pm of a school night.
On the flip side, I'm a Paramedic, and my sister a nurse/midwife.
Very roughly we would earn around the same as a teacher as a new starter, and same as a expirienced member so it's tracks the same wage as such.
My sister and myself work 12hr days and night, 7 days a week, no bank holidays, work Christmas, New Year and so on.My brother works 8am-5pm Mon-Fri. He doesn't loose his days off in catching up on sleep, he doesn't mess up his bodyclock every other week.
My brother has to deal with a few 'naughty' children, guidelines are in place to deal with these kids ( fair enough in the real world it doesn't have any real outcome but still ).
I deal with smelly, abusive, intoxicated, irrate families and friends, violent, dying, and dead people in a normal day. There's guidlines for us too, but it's the real world out there.
I risk my registration everyday by how I deal and treat with people, and funnily enough in this blame culture we live in even a simple job is now made infinatly harder, watching our backs and overtreating everything.
I have 5 weeks holiday a year, my leave can be canclled if a major event should occur. I have to risk my health every ill patient I pick up, everything from Hep B/C, HIV to D&V that might put me off work sick for a week, which in turn goes on my record. I also put my back on the line to carry 25stone people down three flight or stairs for nothing more than a headache.
Our union are currenlty fighting not for 10% rise, but for the right to keep our hours the same each month and not a random week of rotas. We are also fighting for our right to have two 30min meal breaks in our 12hr shifts, not the 30min at a location of the control's choice that the managment want.
There fighting for the right to keep a skilled tech by our side on a Ambluance not a 13k a year glorified blue light driver with advanced first aid.
I'm not against a fair wage for Teachers, but let's have a bit of real life comparisment for a minute. A nurse can be expected to start on wages much lower than that of a trainee Teacher, yet 'that's life', and they do it becuase they 'love it'.
If the Teachers get 10%, I'd feel we should get at least 10% for ourselves, but as the NHS we will be lucky in getting out cost of living pay rise.
And of course after the 1990 strikes, we don't have the option of going on stike anymore.
