BY NOREEN NAVIN
SYDNEY On July 29, NSW public school teachers voted overwhelmingly at state-wide stop-work meetings in support of a proposal by the NSW Teachers Federation to hold a one-day strike.Teachers are demanding that Premier Bob Carr's Labor government grant them a 25% pay increase over the next two years.
The resolution also called on the Carr government to increase its preliminary offer of a 3% per year pay rise before going to arbitration and also to make the immediate 5% pay rise recommended in the Vinson report into public education.
The July 29 meetings attended by 23,000 public school teachers were the most widely attended stop-work meetings in the history of the NSW Teachers Federation.
The anger at the Sky Channel meetings was palpable. An assistant primary principal told the Canterbury-Bankstown area meeting: "If we don't get a decent response from the government then we should not just shut down the schools for one day before the end of term, but shut them down for the whole of Education Week."
Teachers at other stop-work meetings expressed their outrage by adding amendments to the union officials' resolution calling for one week of strikes and rolling one- or two-week strike actions. A call by a teacher at the Lidcombe meeting for an indefinite strike was supported by nearly half of those present.
The Teachers Federation will be seeking support from parents' groups and community organisations as it moves into a more serious struggle with the government over the pay dispute. Most parents understand that higher pay levels are necessary to maintain and attract good teachers into the public school system, especially as 25% of current teachers are projected to retire in the next five to seven years.
It was reported to the stop-work meetings that the Victorian, Western Australia and ACT branches of the Australian Education Union (AEU) would be likely to join the NSW Teachers Federation in taking strike action over enterprise bargaining agreements in September.
State school teachers have never taken nationally coordinated industrial action before. However, teachers have been prompted to consider nationally coordinated action because state and territory governments have discussed capping public sector wage rises at the inflation rate of between 3-3.5%.
Teachers have been angered by the delaying tactics of the Victorian, WA and ACT governments. These Labor governments refused to enter negotiations over new enterprise bargaining agreements until the eve of the expiry dates of current agreements.
The Victorian AEU state conference has already unanimously adopted a resolution to support nationally coordinated strike action.
In WA, the State School Teachers Union executive was deciding at its meeting on August 1-2 whether or not to take strike action in September over its pay claim. The WA teachers' claim is for a 30% pay rise over the next three years, reduction of class sizes in years 4-7, and more money for dealing with students' behaviour problems.
The AEU's ACT branch is also considering joining national strike action in September over its next pay claim. ACT teachers are asking for a 26.87% pay rise to bring Canberra schools in line with NSW rates.
According to ACT AEU branch secretary Clive Haggar, experienced ACT teachers were out of pocket by almost $18,000 over the last three years compared to teachers in NSW.
Having recently signed a new enterprise agreement with the South Australian Labor government, the AEU's SA branch has decided not to participate in the strike action.
In Queensland, the Queensland Teachers Union has been battling against an intransigent state Labor government over a new enterprise bargaining agreement for several months now. The key elements in the QTU's claims are for a reduction in class sizes and additional resources to deal with student behaviour.
A Queensland government survey confirmed that there are at least 2500 over-sized classes in the state, with the average size of primary school classes being higher than in 1986.
The QTU began industrial action in early March over its claim and was gearing up for a state-wide strike when Premier Peter Beattie's Labor government successfully applied to the Industrial Relations Commission to ban any industrial action.
In 2002, following several big state public sector disputes, the Beattie government changed the law to restrict the ability of state public sector workers to take protected industrial action during enterprise bargaining campaigns.
QTU president Julie-Ann McCullough said that in Queensland, "we now have an industrial relations system where the government can refuse to negotiate, try to stop workers publicising their cause and then ban them from withdrawing their labour".
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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