Teachers want change
Primary and intermediate school teachers who have been around long enough to remember the last time they went on strike in 1994 will tell you that work conditions are much worse today.
Almost 30,000 teachers and principals around New Zealand went on strike yesterday in response to the Ministry of Education’s offer about pay and work conditions, and those in Manawatu¯ were out in full force.
Hundreds of teachers waved placards around Manawatu¯ in the morning, then rallied in The Square in Palmerston North, chanting and encouraging drivers to toot their horns.
West End School principal Gary Punler has been teaching for 38 years and said it wasn’t an attractive profession any more. ‘‘We’ve got a decrease in teachers and training and an increase in population of students coming through in the next 10 years . . . We want the Government to listen and [finance minister] Grant [Robertson] needs to take his hands off the treasure chest.’’
Teachers and principals asked for a 16 per cent pay rise but the offer was from about 2 per cent to 3.6 per cent – depending on roll size – a year for three years for principals, and 2.2 per cent to 2.6 per cent for teachers.
‘‘The cost of paying . . . the 16 per cent, is equal to 1.5 kilometres of the Ka¯ piti Expressway or one cockpit out of the new aeroplane that’s been bought to replace the Hercules, $300 million. What’s more likely to happen? Kids get taught tomorrow or we get attacked by a foreign country?’’
Manawatu¯ Principals’ Association president Wayne Jenkins, also principal of Ross Intermediate School, said things had got worse. ‘‘It’s got to a point where a strike is the only way to get the message across and I think the fact we haven’t done that in 24 years is a credit to the quality of the profession.’’
He believes there needs to be more learning support, but also a pay jolt to attract teachers.
Palmerston North Intermediate Normal School teacher Kay Webber has been working for 38 years. She said work conditions were much worse now and said teaching was more fun when she started.
Teachers are contemplating escalating to two-day strikes to ramp up the pressure on the Government, after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern criticised them for striking too early.
Almost 30,000 primary and intermediate school teachers and principals went on strike around New Zealand for the first time in 24 years yesterday, closing 1479 schools. That is three-quarters of state primary schools.
Dozens of rallies aimed to gain attention for better pay, conditions and incentives to attract new teachers.
The number of teachers rallying included 10,000 in Auckland, 5000 in Wellington and 3000 in Christchurch. The rest were spread out across the country.
Speaking from the rally gathering in Fort St, Auckland, the president of primary teachers’ union NZEI (New Zealand Educational Institute), Lynda Stuart, said they continued to negotiate in good faith.
‘‘We never left the table. This is significant; this is around children’s needs in education.’’
Stuart addressed thousands in Aotea Square, mooting the idea of further strikes escalating to two days in length. Cheers and stamping rang out, in contrast to the other option of continuing one-day strikes, which received a muted response.
Stuart said the questions were a ‘‘straw poll’’ to gauge the appetite for rolling regional strikes, or two-day strikes.
The ‘‘very clear’’ preference among members was for a twoday strike ‘‘but we don’t want to go into that space’’, Stuart said.
‘‘We know we’re moving into negotiations again and we go into that in good faith.’’
‘‘Both parties need to be prepared to shift somewhat in those spaces to get a positive outcome, but what I’m hearing from our membership is that we’re really resolute,’’ Stuart said.
‘‘It’s unfortunate that it’s a government that is highly aligned with the policies we agree with, but you go into government to fix the crises that we have.’’
Any further industrial action would require another ballot of union members.
Ardern said yesterday that teachers had a right to strike and there were legitimate issues that needed to be resolved, but she felt they had left the negotiating table too soon.
‘‘When you compare where we were with the nurses . . . there were four offers in total before they made that decision. In this case there has been one, so I think there were still conversations to be had,’’ Ardern said.
‘‘I’m of the view that the issues that teachers have been raising, we actually have very proactively started addressing in the Budget.
‘‘Yes, there’s more to resolve, but that’s what I want to get back to the table and do.’’
A group of senior government ministers met the strikers in Wellington. Ardern initially said she wouldn’t be among them because of another engagement. But a spokeswoman later confirmed Ardern had juggled her diary so she could meet the teachers when they arrived at Parliament.
At a 3000-person rally in Christchurch’s Cathedral Square, NZEI’S lead negotiator, Liam Rutherford, addressed Ardern’s comments.
‘‘When the prime minister says we have gone on strike too early, she fails to understand that while the issues are new for her government, they are longstanding for us.
‘‘Today we take a step we haven’t taken for the last 24 years . . . The time of neglecting teachers and students is over.’’
National leader Simon Bridges said teachers deserved a pay rise but would not say how much.
He disputed the Government’s view that teacher salaries had been run down under National, and that was why teachers were striking now.
National was in office at a time when the fiscal envelope was tighter because of the global financial crisis and Canterbury earthquakes, Bridges said.
‘‘And the strikes didn’t happen under us. They are now . . . it’s a mixture of overpromising, and also saying there is no money when everyone can see by the choices [the Government] makes that isn’t so.’’
The NZEI said the latest collective agreement from the offer would not fix a crisis in teaching.
Lead principal negotiator Louise Green said there ‘‘needs to be better investment in education so every child can reach their potential and we have enough teachers for every class’’.
The Ministry of Education has said it was disappointed that the strike action was for a full day.
Spokeswoman Ellen Macgregor-reid said the ministry valued the work of principals and teachers, and reaching a settlement was a priority.