Articles by Catherine Strohfeldt

Politics

State school teachers to walk off the job within days

The union had previously suggested a strike for Thursday, November 13, when year 12 students were sitting external language exams, but instead chose to rally outside parliament that afternoon after school had finished for the day. The largest rally, in front of state parliament, attracted hundreds of members. In the lead-up to the rally, QTU president Cresta Richardson said the union was prepared to halt strike action if the state accepted its conditions for arbitration. These conditions included placing only parts of the agreement on the table for renegotiation, and granting teachers a 3 per cent wage increase for 2026, as arbitration would see their wages frozen for up to two years. Ruttiman said the union could not afford to have the state walk back previous wins, such as class size caps and non-contact hours they used for course planning, marking and lesson preparation.