Chris Abercrombie: PPTA president responds to Judith Collins criticisms ahead of Thursday's strike

An estimated 100,000 workers are set to go on strike this coming Thursday, despite warnings from the Public Service Minister.

Judith Collins has penned a letter to New Zealanders claiming the planned industrial action is 'unfair' and 'unwarranted'.

PPTA president Chris Abercrombie has responded to Judith Collins's critique of unions being political by saying - of course they are. 

"Well, we're dealing with the Government, so it has to be political. The Government makes the decisions about NCEA, they make the decisions about curriculum, they make decisions about AI marking - they make all these decisions. So it has to be political."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB SO Secondary teachers are one of the groups holding
nationwide strokes on Thursday. The union representatives is PPTA President
Chris Ebercrombie. He is with me now, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Chris, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Okay, So your union is specifically mentioned in the open letter.
We've just been talking about. What do you make of
the best.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
It's a bit disappointing. There's definitely some I think I'm
going to charitably say misunderstandings from the Minister in this
and they open letter, so I'm going to be charitable
to it because otherwise the other options she's deliberately misleading people.
So I think she's just a misunderstanding.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
About what.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Well. In fact, she said the Minister didn't want to
talk about cleftand bargaining. I can read the email from
her office to me, we would like to discuss what
we need to ensure no overlap with issues that relate
to active claims as part of the bargaining process. So
the minister's office said we can't talk about bargaining, and
the meeting that she canceled, so it's a bit dishonest

(01:10):
to say we didn't want to talk about bargaining when
the Minister's office said we couldn't talk about bargaining?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Was Palestine top of the agenda going into a meeting
with the Education minister?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Palestine was on the agenda along with NCAA changes at
AI marketing and curriculum changes.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Why was Palestine there?

Speaker 3 (01:27):
Our membership passed a paper at annual conference last year
called Pieces Union Business, and we wanted to raise our
concerns around the destruction of the education system in Gaza.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Do you think the unions are too politically driven?

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Well, I think the unions are political and anyone who
thinks otherwise doesn't understand unions because what we're dealing with
the government, so it has to be political. The government
makes the decisions about NCAA, they make the decision about curriculum,
they make the decision about AI marking, they make all
these decisions, so it has to be political.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, So that the conversation about Palestine, there's something that
you know you'd gone to your members about, it had
been voted on.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
They're aware of it, well, they are were that they
past the paper, so yes, they're aware of it.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Do you think schools are communicating with parents and students
well about what's happening.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I think so. I'm Facebook for some reason because I've
has a lot of school thinks. I love schools, and
so it regularly shows me school Facebook pages, and there's
a lot of communication on there about the upcoming industrial action,
how the impacts, and any options available to parents.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
If there's one thing I've learned, Chris from having kids
at school, you know, is that parents generally don't hold
back when it comes to going and giving their opinions
to their teachers and principles about the way they think
they're doing the job.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
So I with that.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
So I imagine a lot of people have already, you know,
that this is sort of urging people to go and
talk to the teachers and tell them, you know, what's
really going on. And I'm like, I'm sure a lot
of parents have already who are concerned and want to
know what's going on, have already had those conversations.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
Absolutely. Look, I've had communication from parents. I'm not currently
in the classroom for this role, but I've had communication
with parents, and parents aren't happy about us taking industr realction.
I need a really be clear with that. I'm not
happy about us taking industrial action. Teachers aren't happy about that,
but nearly every parent who's communicated with me agrees with
the aims, the goal. They want subjects specialist teachers in

(03:16):
front of their young people, but they don't like industrial action,
which is fair enough. I don't like industrial actions.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
In terms of money, do you believe the government isn't
in a financial position to meet your demands?

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Well, it's a really interesting some of the discussion, you know,
talks about as meeting inflation, it's not on the government figures.
Fourteen percent of teachers, as a recent survey and international
survey will tell us that said, fourteen percent of teachers
feel valued by policymakers. So this is a workforce that
feels really under pressure. The highest level of stress in
our sector right now. Seventy percent of teachers reported dealing

(03:50):
with government changes are the biggest cause of their stress.
And so we've got this significant change program coming from
the government and they're not meeting the teachers in a
way that we can deal with that.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
What's going to end these negotiations? Because at the end
of the day, you can write all the letters in
your compoints and You can throw blame around as to
why we haven't come to an agreement, but I think
everybody would like to see an agreement put in plans
and you know, unions and the government to put their
big girl and big boy pants on and get the sorted.
What's it going to take.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Well, absolutely we want that. That's the point of negotiations
is to have a settlement. But we also have to
be able to meet the bargain. We don't have any
bargaining dates till after until November. That's the ministry have
to agree to those bargaining dates. Our bargaining teams will
meet this week coming, it'll meet on Monday if they
wanted to, because we want to get this resolved. And yeah,

(04:42):
absolutely it is about getting getting in the room and
getting assorted. But both sides have to be in the room.
We are willing to meet at any time to deal
with us and actually have our bargaining teams to deal
with it. We've got the authority to bargain and so
we can get a resolution, so we can get back
to the teacher and learning.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Any chance that the strike from members could be potentially
called off on.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Thursday, absolutely every opp unity for that but it does
rely on the government coming to the table with an
offer that deals with a really significant unmet need in
our secondary sector. You know, the ministers can talk about
classrooms and talk about these other things, but without quality teachers,
without subject specialist teachers to fill those classrooms, then there's

(05:24):
kind of pointless. YEP.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
I tend to agree with you. I spoke to both
my children, Chris, one who's finished school last year and
one who's finishing this year, and we talked a lot
about changes to NCEO and things. I said to them,
what is the most important thing? And they said, the
decent teacher doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what the system is.
I just need a decent teacher. So that support needs
to be there. Chris, really appreciate your time as well
this morning. Appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
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