NT teachers walk out

By Tim E. Stewart DARWIN — Stepping up a six-month long dispute with the Australian Education Union, the NT government last week began a media campaign which included education minister Steve Hatton describing union representatives as "terrorists". These comments followed mass meetings and a 24-hour walkout on February 14 by teachers and educators in most public schools in the Northern Territory. The dispute began in August, when Australian Education Union members voted to reject the proposed public sector enterprise bargaining agreement, which educators see as largely irrelevant to their professional work. With some of the worst teaching conditions in the country, the NT has suffered significant staff shortages. In Driver High in Palmerston, a school of 400 students had a maths department of one teacher, with a graduate science teacher being asked to pick up additional maths teaching. Out of 27 issues identified during initial negotiations, the AEU-NT is campaigning on five. These are a separate education agreement relevant to educators; planning and preparation time for primary teachers; pay increases; temporary contract educators to be offered the same employment conditions as permanently employed teachers; an improved incentive package for rural and remote localities. Chris Sharpe, AEU-NT president, told Green Left Weekly that "teacher support for the campaign has been phenomenal". Since the campaign began, 350 people have joined the union, and the membership is overwhelmingly in favour of continuing industrial action. This includes suspending a range of voluntary activities conducted after school hours, and "periodic stop-work actions in regional centres and bush schools to highlight basic working conditions".