Teachers have joined nurses, firefighters and other public servants in a sustained campaign for better conditions and wages but it has been a long road for many parents and other people affected by the action.

Action has been escalating for teachers over the past 18 months as both sides of the debate continue to wage war on the other. 

It's been a long and sustained fight, so let's recap how exactly the teacher's industrial action has played out. 

Australian Education Union Tasmania branch president Helen Richardson said the union first launched its Quality Education for All campaign 18 months ago.

The campaign aimed to have a public education system "where educators are respected and valued" and was about ensuring schools, colleges and TAFEs were well-resourced and supported.

Ms Richardson said the campaign also wanted to ensure every student in Tasmania had "the opportunity to get a quality education."

It was the first time since 2014 there had been a sustained union campaign in Tasmania.

"When we started our campaign, we knew we'd have to play the long game and we knew it wouldn't be easy," Ms Richardson said.

Union members in Tasmania organised one of the first member actions last year.

Walk for Workload involved members taking the message of the campaign out to the community, with wobble-boarding and others organised 'pub catch-ups' in their clusters.

The first mention of the industrial action was in July, after the state government's teachers agreement expired on June 30.

The union said at the time it would be pushing for a 3 per cent pay rise and was arguing for more provisions for principals, who were regularly clocking "60-hour-weeks."

At the time, the union also presented the government with a log of claims, collected in the 18 months prior.

AEU Tasmania branch state manager Roz Madsen said at the time Tasmania's teachers were the lowest paid in the country and that this would continue under the state government's 2 per cent cap.

In August the union held our first joint public sector union action against the government's 2 per cent wage cap. Public sector unions asked its members to stand together and wear red in their workplaces.

A 2 per cent cap on wages for public servants, including teachers, was introduced by the Hodgman Government in its first term in 2014.

The cap was introduced due to what the government said was budget constraints and aimed to help curb spending to bring the budget back into surplus.

The wage cap was negotiated in 2014, which was the last time wages agreements for public servants were negotiated, although it was done with financial and workplace incentives to get it across the line.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein has said although the wages policy meant a cap of 2 per cent rise each year over three years, a large number of public servants would get more than that through additional increases.

For an explanation of how the industrial action has played out in Tasmania watch this video:

Schools closed twice last year, once in the morning and once in the afternoon, to accommodate planned industrial action throughout the campaign.

The first school closures were announced by Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff in October, with 14 public schools in Northern Tasmania affected.

Schools that closed in Northern Tasmania at the time were:

The closures were criticised by Labor Education spokeswoman Michelle O'Byrne, who claimed the government had waited until the last minute to announce the closures, leaving parents with little preparation time.

There was also confusion on bus routes and if they would be affected, however Metro services were not disrupted, but some local charter services were.

Exeter and Punchbowl Primary School were on the list as closed schools, but elected to remain open.

School closures were on the cards again a month later, after negotiations continued to break down.

It's believed at the time a significant cut to relief teachers' pay was on the table, which lead to the breakdown of negotiations between the union and the government, which continued in Hobart.

About 39 schools in Northern Tasmania were closed for two hours in the morning on November 27.

Ms Richardson said more than 150 workplaces across the state were closed for two hours over two days of industrial action by union member teachers.

"This action by members showed the depth and the breadth of concern about unmanageable workloads and their frustration at the Hodgman Government's lack of action on a fair and competitive salary for educators," she said.

RELATED STORY: Parents urged to make alternative arrangements ahead of planned school closures

Negotiations continued over the summer break, but failed to progress, so members held stop work meetings at their workplaces on the first day of term one, 2019.

"Members voted to escalate industrial action and introduce new work bans if the government failed to progress negotiations," Ms Richardson said.

At the end of October, a joint public service union rally was held in Launceston, with thousands of members joining together for the first stop work action events across the state.

It was this rally that forced the first of the school closures on October 24.

Launceston College teacher Lisa Bartholomew spoke at the rally and said her colleagues were passionate about their jobs and celebrated the small wins, but continued cuts to staffing levels had impacted on their ability to give individual attention to students.

"While the high achievers are always memorable, but it's the small victories that runs deep; seeing kids achieve their TCE when no one else believed in them," she said.

Hundreds turned out to Launceston's Ockerby Gardens, near the Launceston General Hospital, to increase the fight for an increase to public servant wages.

A stop work meeting was also held the following month, on November 27.

Cries of "shame" from frustrated teachers echoed loud in the Elphin Sports Centre as signs calling to "scrap the cap" were waved with broad applause.

Banners from Exeter Primary School, East Launceston Primary School and others were visible among shirts bearing the slogan: "Tasmanians need a pay rise".

Ms Richardson said about 4500 teachers, principals and support staff from schools and TasTAFE attended meetings in venues in 20 locations across the state.

An extra 95 specialist teachers was used as a sweetener by the government to progress negotiations, announcing the new measure on November 15.

Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff said at the time the government put the new offer on the table, which includes the existing pay rise offer of 6 per cent over three years, and the pledge for 95 additional specialist teachers.

"The offer will also include a plan to reduce teacher contact hours by recruiting 95 additional specialist teachers, on top of the 250 extra teachers we have already committed to recruit," he said.

This offer is on top of the extra 250 teachers the government has already begun recruiting for, which will be placed across Tasmania over the next six years.

Despite both Treasurer Peter Gutwein and Education Minister Jeremy Rockliff both repeatedly saying the government would not budge on the wage cap policy, Premier Will Hodman intervened in February.

Educators and the union had promised to escalate further stop work action in January, if the government failed to progress negotiations on the bargaining table.

Labor Leader Rebecca White weighed in on the debate on January 1, calling on the government to listen to the concerns raised by teachers and the other public servants.

That wish was granted on February 28 but the union swiftly rejected the offer and gave the government a one week deadline to improve the claim.

The government had proposed an offer of 2 per cent in the first year, 2.25 per cent in the second year, and 2.5 per cent in the third year of a new agreement.

This came with a caveat of savings efficiencies and a review of public holidays to make them more uniform.

The union's executive council has put forward a counter-offer to the government which accepted a 2 per cent rise in the new financial year but a 3 per cent rise in the following two years.

Over the course of the industrial action, the union has directed its members to complete certain actions to cause disruption for the government.

Workplace bans were put in place for schools and at TasTAFE, which aimed to put pressure on the government to "come to the table and bargain in good faith."

Union members did not complete comments on end-of-year reports as part of the wages dispute and were encouraged to not input attendance data into a central Education Department website.

The actions divided the community, with the parent group Tasmanian Association of State Schools Organisation calling on parents to communicate with their teachers over the changes.

TASSO president Nigel Jones said the actions would have significant impact on parents, who relied on the comments to gauge how their child was faring at school.

TASSO also expressed disappointment at the union after the stop work meeting in November, saying it was parents and students who were being disrupted by school closures.

After the first lot of school closures were announced in October, parents expressed concern over the lack of time they had to plan alternative child care arrangements for their children.

After threatening further stop work actions this week, Tasmania is poised for a third round of school closures, after negotiations continue to boil over.

The AEU has presented the government with an offer on the table, however it is understood the Premier is likely to go ahead with school closures.

An announcement of whether and which schools will close is expected to by made at 10am.

Ms Richardson said the union had received a revised bargaining offer for the Education Department Teachers Agreement three weeks ago.

"This offer came with a 'grab bag' of new demands that strip some existing conditions, including the loss of public holidays, performance pay for teachers and a review into the public sector," she said.

Ms Richardson said 100 per cent of the 150 workplace meetings rejected the government's offer and 83 per cent of members said the offer failed to meet expectations. These were the results of a survey of more than 4000 union members.

Want even more background? Read our 2018 education year in review here.

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