Catherwood LibraryILR School

Nearly 40,000 state school teachers in the Queensland Teachers Union (QTU) have announced that they will be sending out ballots to all union members to determine whether or not to strike should the Labor administration fail to provide them with adequate salary increases. The QTU is asking for a 4.5% annual salary increase over three years and the organization has made it clear that they feel public educators should be paid as much as private educators working in Queensland’s Catholic schools. However, the current government is in poor economic shape and can barely afford 2.5% annual salary increases for public sector workers, meaning that it may be impossible for state and private teachers’ salaries to be matched up. While the QTU is calling for the strike vote for the first time in seven years, the process of collecting votes can take up to 8 weeks, meaning that the threat of a strike is not yet immediate.