Over 50,000 Queensland teachers strike for the first time in 16 years

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An "historic day”. That’s how the Queensland Teachers' Union is describing its first state-wide strike in 16 years. More than 50-thousand state school educators walked off the job, many marching on parliament, demanding better pay and conditions after government talks collapsed. Classes were cancelled for more than half a million students and there are warnings their fight is far from over.

Transcript

00:00Making their voices heard outside the classroom.

00:06What do we want?

00:07Respect!

00:08When do we want it?

00:09Now!

00:10State school teachers' fury spilling onto Brisbane's streets.

00:13We all feel so overworked, stressed out.

00:17It's getting tougher to actually educate our kids in the classroom.

00:20The burnout is real and that's what we need to stop.

00:23Stopping classes today, they marched united to the steps of State Parliament

00:28with a lesson for the government.

00:34Creating history.

00:3750,000 members stopping work.

00:40This will be the largest strike that Queensland teachers have seen.

00:43The union says they had no choice,

00:46rejecting the government's offer of an 8% pay rise over three years.

00:51It actually takes us to lowest paid teachers in the country or among them.

00:54We've been very clear to make sure that we've made an offer that's above inflation.

00:57and I do understand that the frustration of teachers can be with many of those issues

01:02that we've inherited since coming to government.

01:04It's a profession under crisis and we can't just get by on the love of our students.

01:08It's not just about money.

01:10These teachers say rising classroom violence,

01:13chronic staff shortages and crushing workloads have pushed them to breaking point.

01:18I'm only a fourth year teacher and I'm already at the point of burnout.

01:23Occupational violence is not accepted in any other industry but ours.

01:27We're working day and night, weekends, holidays.

01:30I think it speaks volumes about how underappreciated they feel by this current government.

01:35Across the state, they rallied as one.

01:38Every teacher had a story.

01:42I pull up at the school car park every morning and I sit in the car and I contemplate

01:48whether I'm actually going to go in for the day.

01:51Schools stayed open on skeleton staff.

01:54Just 13% of students showed up for class.

01:58We work for Queensland Health so it's really important for us to be able to still send our children to school.

02:02I know it's really inconvenient but I do think that the teachers need to send a message to the community

02:09and they should be paid more.

02:11The union isn't ruling out further action.

02:14We just want to be valued for what we do every day.

02:17The government says negotiations continue in good faith.

02:21rawdę's remaking your 고소.

02:24There are almost 4,000 of you in this room.

02:25***

02:32***

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended