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Heather du Plessis-Allan: Teachers' unions aren't doing themselves any PR favours

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 7 Oct 2021, 7:16PM
(Photo / Getty Images)
(Photo / Getty Images)

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Teachers' unions aren't doing themselves any PR favours

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 7 Oct 2021, 7:16PM

These teachers’ unions aren't doing themselves any PR favours are they?

The latest from them is that Auckland teachers don’t want to go back to school when Term 4 resumes Monday week.

They think that’s “far too soon”, they’re anxious about having to head back into the classroom when there is community transmission in Auckland, they don’t’ think they should have to when businesses like hairdressers and restaurants are closed and the Government’s been warned if it pushes ahead it faces a teacher backlash.

I’d love to know what hairdressers and restaurant owners think of that.

Because I bet they are desperate to get to work not stay away from it. 

And the community transmission thing is interesting. We are not going to have community-transmission free Auckland again for a very, very long time.

Covid is here to stay now.

Anyway, I’m not here to break the news to the teachers that the Government officially dumped the elimination policy three days ago. 

And I’m not even going to argue whether it’s safe or a superspreader going back to school because even the modellers I’ve spoken to don’t know either way. 

But I just want to point out how differently the teachers’ unions are behaving in comparison to the other unions we generally consider their peers.

Look at the nurses. These guys called off a strike in the middle of their pay negotiations to go back to work during this outbreak. 

And for many of them, that means going face to face with Covid. 

Look at the police. Have they been complaining about having to work on the frontlines this entire outbreak? No. The only complaining they did about Covid was that they wanted the jab and weren’t given it fast enough to keep them safe at work.

And then you have the teachers’ unions. Of all three public sector workforces, the least likely to come into contact with Covid, and yet the most resistant to going back to work. 

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