PM and ministers refusing to engage - PPTA

As secondary teachers prepare to discuss escalating industrial action in 2011, the prime minister and government MPs are closing their doors to them.

Throughout the collective agreement negotiations government MPs countrywide have been refusing to meet with secondary teachers who live in their electorates negotiations and now the prime minister appears to be following suit.

John Key has refused to meet with PPTA president Kate Gainsford to discuss stalled negotiations, despite being prepared to step in for movie moguls and failed finance companies.
“It is deeply disturbing that New Zealand’s education system is not important enough to warrant the prime minister’s time,” Gainsford said.

Gainsford had also heard many reports from PPTA members throughout the country who were being stonewalled by their local government MPs.

“It’s not about political parties or ideology - it is about public education and public money. These are issues that affect most New Zealanders. It is New Zealand’s education system, New Zealand’s class sizes and New Zealand’s supply of secondary specialists,” she said.

The minister of education had also been notably absent when it came to addressing these issues, Gainsford said.
“Anne Tolley has never seen fit to engage regularly around these important matters. If you want change in the sector, you have to work with teachers,” she said.

PPTA members have put forward a range of intensified actions for 2011 and are now considering these. Proposed actions are broken up into three main areas – goodwill bans, curriculum/assessment bans and strike actions.
A package will be put together of the actions with the highest level of support from members. This will be voted on by members in a secret ballot during paid union meetings in February.

Attached is the list of proposed actions members will be voting on.

ENDS

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