I shun union puppets, Hayes tells teachers | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

Wairarapa's MP says he will listen to local teachers in their pay battle with the Government when they cut the strings to their union puppet masters.

John Hayes' office has been bombarded with a 100 postcards from the region's secondary school teachers who are planning to strike on September 15.

The teachers are fighting clawbacks and pushing for a 4 per cent pay rise over the Government's offer of 1.5 per cent.

Mr Hayes said he was happy to receive correspondence but was not interested in union-led noise.

"It's just a union game," he said. "If people take the trouble to write in or it's a constituent appointment I'm happy to hear from them, but if people are dancing like puppets on a string I have more to do with my time."

Wairarapa's regional representative for the Post Primary Teachers Association, Geoff Thurston, said the teachers were Mr Hayes' constituents and he hoped the MP would be willing to discuss their concerns over a cup of tea.

Wairarapa PPTA members - about 95 per cent of the region's teachers - voted in favour of striking in two weeks to raise awareness of the stalemate.

Mr Thurston said the Government wanted to remove the 25-pupil limit on classroom size and double the number of days teachers who could be called back to school during holidays.

"The teachers are particularly incensed about this one because it shows the Government doesn't recognise the extra work that teachers put in now," he said.

The Government had painted a bleak picture of the economy but information from their union suggested it wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Mr Thurston warned that if conditions slipped it would be difficult to attract to Wairarapa teachers who taught subjects such as technology and IT.

He knew a case of one school, which he wouldn't name, that brought in a foreign teacher who failed to adjust to the New Zealand education system.

"It's not that good to have to rely on importing teachers," he said.

Makoura College, which has a large number of technology teachers, had not experienced job shortages, principal Tom Hullena said. However, many technology teachers were not New Zealand-trained and if pay and conditions slipped, fewer graduates might choose teaching.

Teaching was extremely busy and demands on teachers were far greater than they used to be, he said.

Mr Hullena was advised by the Ministry of Education yesterday that the PPTA teachers might strike and he said newsletters would be sent to parents when the date was definite.