Childcare staff to strike

Press, 5 December 1989, Page 6

Childcare staff to strike

By

MARITA VANDENBERG

Childcare workers will strike on Friday in an attempt to get their employers back to the negotiating table before February. The strike will involve about 150 centres whose workers are covered by the consenting . parties’ award. Their award talks were adjourned on November 24 after employer representatives said they would not address the union’s claims until March, after new Government childcare funding was received.

Fifteen of Christchurch’s centres will be closed for the day.

The union secretary, Ms Helen Baxter, said delaying talks until after funding was received meant employers were asking their workers to accept the leftovers.

“Childcare workers have endured abominable wages and conditions for years,” she said. “The Government’s stated intention in increasing funding to the service was to improve standards in the early childhood sector. Workers are the centres’ most valuable resource and improvements for them should be the employers’ first consideration, not the last.”