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.
She said the union hoped the strike action would spur the government into stopping the looming arbitration process with a new wage offer.
“Such offers occurred in 2006 and 2009, despite negotiations being in, or on the path to, arbitration,” she said.
Next week’s strike will be the second strike this year.
Negotiations between the union and Education Department began in July when the previous wage offer expired.
Members held their first strike in early August, following an offer from the state the QTU rejected, and more than 90 per cent of members voted to continue a series of 24-hour strikes if the government would not come to the table.
Following conciliation, more than two-thirds of union members rejected the state’s final offer, and the Education Department told the QTU its next step was to hash out the dispute in court.
The state has repeatedly offered teachers a three-year 8 per cent wage increase, with the final offer including attraction and retention incentives, a new experienced senior teacher pay bracket, and anti-occupational violence measures.
Arbitration will automatically begin on December 31, after which point industrial action will not be protected.
