Strike By Married Women Teachers?

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32378, 18 August 1970, Page 1

Strike By Married Women Teachers?

If strike action is considered by primaryschool teachers, it has been suggested that married women teachers take the action in place of the single women and men.

This suggestion has come from 10 married women members of the staff of the Westburn Primary School, who, through their spokesman, Mrs E. Moir, a New Zealand Educational Institute representative on the staff, have submitted the suggestion to the local branch of the N.Z. E.I. “We believe that married women teachers who form a significant section of the primary teaching service should be asked to act in the event of strike action so that single women and men teachers will not be penalised in any way,” Mrs Moir said. Such a move on a national scale would cripple the primary school service in the event of strike action as large numbers of married women

have returned to the service in the last 10 years. Mrs Moir said that although the 10 married women on the staff of the Westburn Schoo) presented only an isolated example of such a suggestion, she was sure that many married women teachers whose husbands were working supported the idea. “We are right behind our other colleagues who wish to see the status of men teachers improve and an increase in the number of men in the service," she said. Any direction towards strike action which might be forthcoming from primary teachers will be discussed at a special general meeting of all branches of the New Zealand Education Institute in Wellington next week-end.