Teacher strike: 'We want conditions so that we can give quality education to the students'
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Loading... - Manger Agnes
- 10 May 2023
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With passion, hundreds of secondary and area school teachers passionately marched towards Parliament today to vociferously protest for better pay and conditions. The unbridled enthusiasm of the rally was part of a series of one-day regional strikes which caused a seismic shift, resulting in secondary and area schools across the North Island from Wellington through to Taranaki and Hawke's Bay being shuttered on Wednesday.
To compound the issue, the strike has left South Island schools destitute yesterday and is scheduled to move to the remaining North Island schools on Thursday. The PPTA acting president Chris Abercrombie passionately told the rally at Parliament that the teachers' collective agreement negotiations were proving to be an interminable and difficult battle.
He stated that teacher pay should be included in the government's promised focus on "bread-and-butter issues" because pay rates were miserly and scant. "It is not good enough that in Aotearoa New Zealand we have teachers going to food banks. And I know this to be true because I've had to do it myself," he said, his voice rising with every word.
Abercrombie revealed that the ministry's most recent offer was a paltry improvement on the previous offer made in October last year but it did not meet the union's claim for a pay increase that matched the cost of living.
Clare Preston, a teacher in the crowd, added that teachers were unhappy to be striking again.
She said the ministry's latest offer was unappealing and essentially the same as its October offer but with one more year tacked on. "It essentially means that we'd be locked into this offer that we're really discontented with, just for a longer period of time so in many ways it's worse than the offer we had back in October," she said, exasperated.
The atmosphere was charged with emotion as another teacher, Paul Dyer, fervently said that teachers needed to show that what they had been offered was not right. "We're a united group of teachers who know what's needed for the improvement of education in New Zealand which is good pay and conditions for the teachers," he said with a determined look in his eyes.
"We want pay that is keeping up with the rate of inflation and we want conditions so that we can give quality education to the students in our classrooms," he added, his words resonating with the rest of the crowd. Members of the public watching the rally on Lambton Quay were generally supportive of the teachers. "They deserve everything they're going for," said one woman, a retired teacher.
"I reckon teachers are amazing, we should be supporting them more," another said, her voice filled with empathy. "It's cool. I think they do deserve it. It's hard work and important work as well," a man watching the march said with a hint of admiration.
