By Afrodity Giannakis

SYDNEY -- The March 20 half-day strike by members of the NSW Teachers Federation was well received by large sections of the community. About 300 associations across the state lobbied politicians in support of the teachers' pay campaign, which includes state primary and secondary schools, TAFE colleges and Adult Migrant English centres.

The Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations, as well as Catholic school teachers represented by the Independent Education Union, backed the teachers' claim for a 12% salary rise with no trade-offs. Catholic school teachers have been promised the same pay rise as state system teachers by the Catholic schools association. They have voted to join the April 23 march on NSW Parliament House planned by the Teachers Federation.

At the time of the stoppage, the Carr Labor government had offered a 7.1% pay rise, with the remaining 4.9% unfunded and conditional on 21 productivity measures (involving bigger class sizes, the loss of up to 2496 full-time jobs, heavier workloads and a further decline in educational standards). The offer was rejected by the Teachers Federation.

Teachers are awaiting the outcome of ongoing negotiations between the union and the state government.

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