Outspoken teacher calls strike unethical

JOHN BISSET/The Timaru Herald

STRIKING OUT: Mackenzie College teacher Jon Bird will not join the Post Primary Teachers' Association strike on September 15, saying it will affect students' education.

Relevant offers

A South Canterbury teacher has slammed the upcoming secondary teachers' union strike, saying it is unprofessional and will affect students' education.

The Post Primary Teachers' Association announced this week it will strike for 24 hours on September 15 due to failed pay negotiations with the Government.

Jon Bird, a teacher at Fairlie's Mackenzie College, said industrial action was "unethical" and it was time the Education Ministry and the union "started working for the students rather than on your own agendas".

As a union member, Mr Bird said teachers needed to start behaving like the professionals they liked to be seen as, and the ministry needed to recognise them as such.

An Education Ministry spokeswoman said Mr Bird's comments referred to "an issue between a union member and their union, and is not something the ministry could or should comment on".

PPTA president Kate Gainsford said it was unlikely that a one-day strike would affect students' education significantly.

"It's drawing a very long bow to suggest a one-day strike would irreparably damage a student's learning."

Ms Gainsford said she had not heard from any other teachers who shared Mr Bird's view.

"The strike vote was done by secret ballot in meetings throughout the country and had 95 per cent support.

"It seems unusual to belong to a voluntary organisation and ignore the positions reached through a democratic process in that organisation. A person so morally outraged by a position could feel obliged to resign."

Ms Gainsford said the PPTA could take membership away from individuals who did not follow membership decisions, but that it was rarely used.

Mr Bird said teachers should give up the right to strike.

"This can be achieved by extending the powers of the body that looks after the police's pay to cover teachers," he said.

"It will cost the Government money, possibly a great deal, but for the sake of our children's future [it] should be done."

Ms Gainsford said the union would give up the right to strike "only if it also wants to give up ever having any pay increases because there is simply no other way of getting them".

She said it was "a little hypo-critical to accept pay rates won on the backs of teachers' sacrifices in earlier times while steadfastly refusing to step up to the plate when your turn comes".

In March, Mr Bird made headlines when he said he would boycott paid union meetings because it affected students' education. He called on the PPTA to hold meetings outside of school hours.

- © Fairfax NZ News