US teacher to NZ teachers: 9-day strike won us pay rise

West Virginia Education Association president Dale Lee has been brought to NZ to explain how a long strike can succeed. Photo / Simon Collins

An American teacher unionist says teacher strikes can help win political support to overcome teacher shortages.

Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, will speak at both primary and secondary teachers' union conferences this week about how his union helped win a 5 per cent pay rise after a nine-day strike in February and March.

Their success has sparked similar strikes in five other states as the United States grapples with a teacher shortage similar to New Zealand's, with near-record low unemployment luring many teachers into better-paid jobs elsewhere.

"West Virginia became a verb," Lee said in Rotorua, where he will speak at the NZ Educational Institute (NZEI) conference tomorrow .

"Those other states would say, 'Don't make us go West Virginia on them,' meaning don't make us stay out for nine days."

The decision to invite Lee to address both the NZEI and the Post Primary Teachers' Association, which starts its conference in Wellington on Tuesday, is a sign that both unions are digging in for a hard fight for big pay rises to overcome teacher shortages here.

However, West Virginia teachers did not actually lose any pay through their strike because of a system that allows schools to make up days later if they have to close for any reason such as snow - or strikes.

Unlike New Zealand, their two teachers' unions are also legally unable to bargain collectively with the Government because West Virginia is a so-called "right-to-work" state, where all teachers are paid the same whether they belong to a union or not.

The unions' strategy was therefore to build public support and negotiate directly with state politicians, who passed a bill to implement the 5 per cent pay rise.

Lee said the politicians saw the need to act because West Virginia teachers were earning between $5000 and $25,000 less than they could earn by commuting just across the border to neighbouring states, leaving behind 727 out of the state's 20,000 teaching positions that had to be filled by non-certified teachers.

"The average teacher pay in West Virginia is US$45,000 ($68,000)," he said.

"Our goal is to increase salaries by at least US$10,000 in the next four years."