School services officers debate strike action

By Melanie Sjoberg ADELAIDE — A combined meeting of PSA/SAIT School Service Officers was held on October 19 to plan the next phase of a campaign to defend members jobs in this state. The meeting passed a motion calling on the Brown Liberal government to reverse its June budget decision to cut funding by the equivalent of 250 full-time SSOs. The meeting endorsed a campaign of targeting key marginal Liberal electorates and picketing MPs' offices, and industrial action involving a work to rule campaign in schools. A stoppage later in term 4 will be considered if other activities are unsuccessful. The question of timing of the industrial action caused debate. An amendment proposing a half day stoppage and rally in the fourth week of term, rather than later, was strongly supported from the floor on the basis that to wait to strike until the end of term was a waste of time as schools would be almost empty. While Janet Giles, newly elected SAIT president, argued strongly against this amendment, saying it would put principals and parents off side, Jan McMahon, PSA general secretary, supported it saying that SSOs needed to take control of the campaign and make decisions about action before their time ran out. Voting on the amendment for early strike action was so close that a division needed to be called. The amendment was narrowly defeated.