Jenny Long, Sydney
As part of its campaign against new job-threatening multi-year contracts to clean schools and other public buildings announced in June by the NSW Labor government, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) announced on September 1 that it was calling for a 96-hour strike by all NSW public school cleaners beginning on the morning of September 7.
The LHMU has also called on school cleaners to attend a rally outside the NSW parliament building on September 8 to protest against the proposed contracts, to be introduced in 2005, which the union argues will drastically cut the hours cleaners are paid to clean schools and other public buildings, and offer no guarantee of employment to existing cleaners.
NSW LHMU cleaners' secretary Annie Owens has warned that the contracts threaten the jobs of up to 7000 existing cleaners.
Over the previous fortnight a broad ranger of individuals and groups have thrown their support behind the cleaners' campaign. According to the LHMU, at least 1000 people across the state have sent protest emails to Premier Bob Carr's government.
On August 24, the NSW Teachers Federation sent a bulletin to all NSW schools and TAFEs asking teachers to actively support NSW cleaners. In the bulletin, Teachers Federation secretary Barry Johnson stated the work of cleaners ensures hygienic conditions for staff and students. "Our cleaners should not be held to ransom by the proposed new contracts, nor should staff and student health and safety be compromised by the proposed reductions to cleaning standards", he wrote.
Johnson also said that no teacher, parent or student should carry out the work of cleaners during any cleaners' strike, outside cleaners should not be employed, and that alternative arrangements should be made if the schools are non-operational due to health and safety concerns.
After government contract cleaners rallied outside his office in Tamworth on August 12, independent state MP for Tamworth Peter Draper raised their concerns in the NSW Legislative Assembly. He pointed out that since the average age of NSW cleaners is 48, they fear that under the new contracts the government will favour the hiring of younger workers who have not previously suffered workplace injuries.
Draper also noted that according to a recent study by WorkCover, it was already physically impossible for the cleaners to achieve a reasonable level of cleanliness within the hours provided and occupational health and safety standards.
He asked how it was that one government department answerable to NSW industrial relations and commerce minister John Della Bosca could be making a recommendation against the "high expectations in limited time frames and product savings", when another department that answers to him was renegotiating the contracts to reduce hours and cleaning standards.
In response to the suggestion by commerce department bureaucrats that parents do voluntary school cleaning, Draper asked: "Does the department honestly expect optional services to be picked up by parents, Parents and Citizens Association members, and even teachers, whose recent wage case highlighted their work load and who, in small rural schools, are already struggling with a lack of peer and administration support?"
From Green Left Weekly, September 8, 2004.
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