School teachers walked off the job in New Zealand's largest city, Auckland, on Monday, kicking off a week of national strike action as a three-month battle over wages and work conditions tests the Labour-led government.
The latest stand-off with its traditional union support base comes just over a year after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party formed a coalition government, promising to pour money into social services and rein in economic inequality, which has increased despite years of strong growth.
Ardern boasts a glowing international profile and historically high personal popularity but has spent much of her term navigating labour disputes and plummeting business confidence.
About 30,000 teachers around New Zealand would strike throughout the week, forcing hundreds of thousands of children out of school.
"My plea would be for the teachers to consider the offer we put. We've put everything we've got on the table," Ardern told reporters. "We hope they'll see in that a government that's really working hard to listen and hear them on the issues that they've raised."