Nearly 20,000 secondary school teachers are going on strike today.
The action is in response to what the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) describes as an “appalling” pay offer from the Government.
Groups of protesting teachers this morning stood outside Auckland high schools holding placards, chanting and waving to garner support from rush-hour commuters.
Around 100 teachers were outside Kelston Girls’ College to support the protest action.
Striking staff held up large banners that read “the numbers do not add up” and “value teachers”.
Teachers on the picket line said they would prefer to be inside classrooms today but it was necessary to take this action to be able to teach their pupils.
Associate Education Minister David Seymour told Herald Now’s Ryan Bridge that more negotiation from teachers may have been more “responsible”.
“I just think to go to a strike after a few days of negotiating may be a little bit trigger-happy.”
He said the decision to strike so close to exams was likely made by union leadership, conceding that teachers had likely been put in “a difficult position”.
The Government has offered a 1% pay rise every year for three years in collective agreement negotiations.
Seymour defended the government’s offer, noting that teachers’ pay had already increased by 14% in the last few years, and stating that 60% of teachers earn more than $100,000.
PPTA president Chris Abercrombie said the offer was the lowest increase in a generation and between 18,000 and 19,000 teachers would be protesting today.
He said the Government’s offer was “appalling” and argued it failed to help efforts to recruit and retain teachers within the workforce.
“We’re really disappointed that we have to strike, it’s not what we want, we want to be in the classroom teaching,” Abercrombie said.
“But what we’re striking for is basically to get the Government to move the needle on these offers.”
He claimed the Government was also failing to address other PPTA claims such as the need for more pastoral care staffing, professional development for curriculum and assessment, and more support for curriculum leaders who will be working on upcoming NCEA changes.
Abercrombie said if no progress was made, they would also roster students home and not teach certain year levels on specific days from September 15.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Public Service Minister Judith Collins said the PPTA striking after only six days of bargaining without taking the offer of 1% a year for three years to members was appalling, disingenuous and a “political stunt”.
She said it would disrupt students as they prepared for important exams.
“I think what’s really upset the unions is that we’re actually putting some facts out there and they’d much rather just go straight to strike and not go to the bargaining table, and my comments are very clear – get to the bargaining table. Stop having little tantrums as the unions decide to do.”
Papatoetoe High School principal Vaughan Couillault said parents who were worried about their child missing class time should remain engaged with their school on the day, or by emailing their teacher.
He said no one wanted industrial action where learning time was lost, whether it was a teacher or government minister, and the sooner people could get back around the table and restart negotiations the better.
“Yes, every day matters and it is disruptive, but it’s not necessarily going to be mission critical to how the exams go in November for some students, or the assessment,” Couillault said.
“On Thursday everyone’s back in and getting work under way.”
Most teachers would have built into their learning programmes the ability for students to miss one day of learning, he said.
Standing on this morning’s picket line Henderson High School teacher Steve Voissey said he had returned to the class after a 10-year break students in 2025 were very different and the pay should reflect that.
“I mean the attention span is one thing, they are just totally different kids. It’s so much harder these days.”
Green Bay High teacher Sylvie Howell said current conditions teachers worked under did not represent the many roles they played in pupils’ lives.
She said she was a friend, mum, shoulder to cry on and nurse on any given day.
She said they would not be out here if they didn’t care so much, and any insinuation that they were too trigger-happy, or that they did not care about their kids because they were striking for one day was incorrect.
“You know, we are getting our pay docked today… this shows just how much we care, not how much we don’t.”
Collins also earlier apologised for incorrectly claiming that secondary school teachers with 10 years’ experience got paid $147,000.
Data provided by Collins’ own office shows 1.8% of teachers earned more than $140,000.
Labour’s education spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime said the comment was “hugely disrespectful”.
“I think that it was really harmful, her comments, in the lead-up to the strikes... to be spreading such misinformation about what teachers are actually earning,” Prime said.
Collins apologised but said “the key point remains that teachers are not underpaid”.
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