Queensland teachers call 24-hour strike

By Bill Mason

BRISBANE -- Queensland teachers voted overwhelmingly in a series of statewide ballots to strike for 24 hours on March 25 over pay and conditions. The vote by 9000 Queensland Teachers Union members was 85% in favour of a strike.

The QTU has suggested that more strike action could follow as part of the union's campaign to force the Borbidge government to increase its pay offer.

Union president Ian Mackie said on March 17 that more teacher meetings would be held next term to decide on further action. "This could go on for some time", he said.

The union has put in a pay claim of 10% for 1997, while the government has offered a 4% annual increase for the two- or three-year life of a proposed enterprise agreement.

Mackie said the union would be happy to discuss any pay-rise offer between 4% and 10%. But the strike was "highly unlikely" to be called off.

Queensland teachers would be the "cellar dwellers of Australian schools", with the lowest pay among the country's teachers, if they accepted the state government's offer, he said.

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