Teacher strike: Electrician takes day off for his girls

Self employed electrician Mike Muir will stay home with daughters Ruby (8) and Emily (10) during the teachers' strike. Photo / Greg Bowker

Auckland's desperate tradie shortage will get even tighter tomorrowwhen electrician Mike Muir takes a day off to look after his children.

Muir, a Half Moon Bay self-employed contractor with one apprentice, has rescheduled his work so that can be with daughters Emily, 10, and Ruby, 8, while their teachers go on strike.

"If it's a nice day, we'll probably go down to the park, just down the road here," he said.

"Otherwise, if we can't go out, I guess we'll stick to indoor games and things.

"Sometimes if I need to get something from the Hardware House or somewhere, I'll take them for a little journey there, if they are getting all caged up.

"No big plans, but we'll make sure we go for a walk or a scooter or a bike ride, depending on what the weather's doing. If it's bad, we'll probably go out for lunch."

Muir and his wife Anna, a human resource consultant, both have flexible jobs and are used to fitting in with school holidays and other breaks.

"I'm always having to juggle and find arrangements for the holidays, this is just another day I've had to do that," Anna said.

Mike Muir expects to play indoor games with daughters Ruby (8) and Emily (10) if it's wet on strike day. Photo / Greg Bowker

Mike normally needs to be with his apprentice all the time, but on Wednesday the apprentice attends classes.

"Wednesdays once a fortnight are usually a pretty cruisy day because I plan it that way," Mike said.

"My daily jobs are always changing, I'm always moving them right, left and centre, so it's not really an issue to change my work around."

He works only Monday to Friday.

"I've made it a rule not to work weekends, that's family time. If you make it like that, people don't expect you to work," he said.

"Any time with the kids is always good. These days there's a lot of working families where they are not available to have time with them, so we are pretty lucky the situation we're in."