Leon Parissi, Sydney
Thousands of NSW TAFE students face a massive fees hike this year. A union- and student-based campaign to oppose the new fees has built up a head of steam since the middle of last year. Unionists oppose the fees because public education should be government funded, but also because they fear that higher fees mean students will drift to commercial providers and that will impact on the employment of teachers and support staff.
In supporting the new fees regime, the state Labor government, headed by Premier Bob Carr, is disregarding standing NSW ALP policy and a resolution from ALP state annual conference last year, both of which opposed fees for mainstream courses. The NSW Labor Council, the Teachers' Federation and other unions also oppose the fees.
The NSW Teachers Federation has banned the collection of the new fees, and decided not to comply with a January Industrial Relations Commission directive to lift its work ban. The commission also ordered PSA members to do work intended to undermine the teachers' ban.
PSA delegates, however, unanimously agreed not to undertake any extra work designed to undermine the other union's industrial action. PSA delegates found themselves in conflict with the PSA Executive which initially had advised members to comply with the court-directed scab manoeuvre of dealing with new paperwork designed to complete the payment process.
The opposition to fees has also spurred the TAFE student body into action. While there is no official student union for NSW TAFE, a NSW Labor Council-sponsored TAFE Students' Network (TSN) has grown and has undertaken a variety of actions to build the campaign. TSN is encouraging students for whom the increased fees are causing hardship to apply for special exemptions. Teachers are assisting to distribute the student-designed exemption form, as TAFE management has refused to distribute any officially approved form.
On January 31, a demonstration was held outside the ALP National Conference in Sydney as part of the campaign. About 40 protestors from a variety of trade unions, the National Union of Students and TAFE students chanted "Free TAFE for all" as they handed out leaflets to largely sympathetic ALP delegates, staffers and observers entering the Conference venue.
TAFE student leader George Samuel said, "Not only is the NSW ALP defying its own policy, as well as last year's conference resolution against TAFE fees, but to add insult to injury it is slashing support staff and cutting library budgets." Samuel's case for a special exemption from TAFE fees is being taken up by the NSW Teachers' Federation in the Supreme Court. When he and other students tried to submit a special exemption application, TAFE management refused to accept them.
The combined action of union and students has the potential to reverse the government's TAFE budget cuts, jobs slashing and increased fees.
[Leon Parissi is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From Green Left Weekly, February 11, 2004.
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