Secondary teachers across the country want a 4% pay rise, but the Ministry of Education is offering a 1.5% increase.
The first nationwide day-long strike has been provisionally arranged to take place on September 15, and further strikes could follow.
New Zealand PPTA executive Otago representative Jocelyn Hunter said striking was not an ideal course of action, but the executive felt it was being backed into a corner.
"We're really disappointed that we have to do this.
"We would much rather be negotiating," Ms Hunter said.
"But we feel we haven't got an option. We feel like we're not being listened to."
Discussions around issues such as capping class sizes, free influenza immunisations for teachers, time for professional development and the provision of laptops for teachers had been shut down by ministry negotiators, she said.
At paid union meetings last week, 99.3% of secondary teachers voted to reject the ministry's latest pay offer, and 90.9% supported an addition to the secondary teachers collective agreement claim to prevent employers applying the 90-day fire-at-will provisions heralded in upcoming legislation.
More than 95% of secondary teachers voted to take a range of protest actions in term three, including a one-day strike, and further protest and industrial action in term four if settlement has not been achieved.
PPTA president Kate Gains-ford said the Wednesday, September 15, strike date would be confirmed by the PPTA executive.
More than 12,200 members attended the meetings, which was a record, she said.
While pay was an issue, any settlement package would also need to address members' claims for safer school environments and better learning conditions for pupils, she said.
Prime Minister John Key criticised the planned strike.
"Personally, I think it's very disappointing and I think it shows you how disconnected they are from the real world.
"Quite frankly, we've offered them a deal which is consistent with what nurses and police have got.
"It's in line base level of inflation."
The sector had received significant wage increases in the past decade and the economic conditions facing the Government had to be considered, he said.
"We want to find a solution. I'm hopeful that we can.
"I think we've entered these negotiations in utter good faith but at the end of the day, there's not an endless bounty of cash out there and it would be quite unfair of us actually, to offer teachers what they want - a 4% pay increase - when everyone else is settling for less than 2[%]."
Education Minister Anne Tolley was also disappointed with the proposed strike action and urged the PPTA to continue negotiations.
Ms Gainsford said parents would support strike action because issues such as class size were a community concern.
Ms Gainsford said the Government needed to reassess the situation because it had put its negotiators in "a tough place" by not allowing them to look at certain issues.
"We've called off strikes before.
"We'll do it again if we see movement of the kind that we need to see," Ms Gainsford said.
