Riled-up kindergarten teachers have ridiculed a premier for her "education state" claim to fame as hundreds down tools to demand a pay rise.
Teachers and staff from Victorian kindergartens went on strike for 24 hours on Tuesday after 15 months of fruitless bargaining talks.
Keryn Cunningham and Emily Hughes were among the throngs who marched to Victorian parliament to turn up the heat on the Labor government.
"The government has given us nothing," Ms Cunningham told AAP.
"Not even an offer."
The pair of kindergarten teachers gave up a day's pay to attend the stop-work rally.
Despite having 15 years' experience, Ms Cunningham said her 21-year-old daughter who works in retail earns more money.
Kindergarten educators were on a "completely different pay scale" to primary and secondary school teachers and often do an extra day of unpaid work each week.
"There's massive burnout," Ms Hughes said.
The Australian Education Union has been negotiating on their behalf with Early Learning Association Australia, pushing for a 35 per cent pay rise over three years, better conditions and more training.
The state government partially funds kindergarten service providers.
On the first day of a trade mission to China, Premier Jacinta Allan repeated Victoria was the "education state" and declared its priorities were "education, education, education" during a speech in Beijing.
Ms Hughes had a message for the premier.
"If you want to advertise we're the education state, step up," she said.
Demonstrators held up signs reading "1 2 3 time to pay me", "why should I stay" and "free kinder not free Labour" as the union's Victorian branch president Justin Mullaly whipped the crowd into a frenzy.
"The premier's in China at the moment and I tell you what we need to make sure she can hear us," he said.
He slammed Ms Allan's "so-called education state" - sloganised on Victorian number plates since 2015 - as "nonsense".
"If we were in the education state, we wouldn't have to bloody well be here," Mr Mullaly said.
The teachers voted to take further stop-work action and work limitations if necessary, including banning transition statements for parents of children finishing four-year-old kinder.
In 2024, the Victorian government pushed back the expected completion of the statewide rollout of universal four-year-old kindergarten, known as pre-prep, from 2032 to 2036.
Another 11,000 teachers and educators must be found through to 2036 to cater for the move to pre-prep and three-year-old kinder, the union estimates.
Acting Premier and Education Minister Ben Carroll urged the union to remain at the negotiating table and bargain in "good faith".
"We do know how important our kindergarten teachers are," he told reporters.
"When it comes to setting up a young person for life, it's (kindergarten) where it happens."
Wages for kindergarten teachers must be "nationally competitive" and should be in line with the other workers in the care economy, Mr Carroll added.
