PPTA to strike

The Dom Post reports:

Thousands of secondary school teachers are preparing to strike after rejecting the Government’s pay offer.

Schools will close for half a day next week to allow more than 18,000 teachers to attend special meetings to vote on strike action. …

The PPTA is seeking a 4 per cent pay rise. It also wants an extra 1 per cent KiwiSaver employer contribution, laptops, immunisation against contagious diseases, and wants class sizes capped at 30 pupils, or 24 in classes with hazards such as woodwork, and some science classes.

Why stop there? Why not also demand company cars?

The sad thing is that good teachers are underpaid. Top teachers should be getting paid around $100,000 or more – and they are worth it.

But the PPTA refuses to consider performance pay, so the best teachers can be paid what they are worth. They insist that the worst teachers are paid the same as the best.