Pressure on Government to resolve standoff

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Barring some unforeseen development that does not seem likely so far, the strikes by teachers’ unions look like going on for some time with the parties in what seems to be a sort of stalemate.

About 20,000 members of the Post Primary Teachers’ Association walked off the job yesterday. This time they were not joined by kindergarten or primary school staff, represented by the NZ Educational Institute Te Rui Roa, who had joined them earlier this month — but the numbers were still large enough to get their message across.

Equally worrying is the threat of further stopwork action during Term 2 between April 24 and June 30.

Acting PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said that although the strike was not as visible as the earlier one it had gone well, despite unfavourable weather in many parts of the country.

As well as sending letters to MPs and Cabinet members, teachers targeted schools, train stations and some MP offices, including that of Minister of Finance Grant Robertson.

Public support seemed strong with most parents understanding the need to keep teachers pay up with the cost of living, and the need to keep experienced and skilled teachers in classrooms.

Teachers will now get back around the table with the Minister of Education to try to settle their collective agreements.

Canterbury PPTA chair Thomas Newton said further strikes were a real possibility: “Next term we are looking at rolling strikes and withdrawing services and some aspects of what we do,” he said.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he was disappointed that teachers were back on strike so soon.

“I would rather they were around the negotiating table trying to make some progress on these issues because you know I think, yes we do owe it to the kids, we do owe it to the parents to get this resolved,” he said.

There was one unusual casualty of the action, which had nothing to do with teachers, when Minister of Education Jan Tinetti was struck by a camera during a media scrum and had to take leave from Parliament for the rest of the day.

The continuing failure to reach an agreement is an embarrassment for the Government in an election year.

Many parents are worried that remote learning does not meet the standards that can be reached by being in a classroom and fear their children’s education has already been affected in the long term by the former Covid lockdowns. They want to see progress soon.