By Tim E. Stewart
DARWIN — Boosted by a conference of Australian Education Union delegates held here over the May Day long weekend, 1000 NT teachers rallied outside the NT parliament on May 10.
The rally marked a turning point for the nine-month campaign against the NT government's attempts to reduce pay and working conditions by including teachers in a public sector enterprise agreement. A ban on non-classroom activities such as school musicals, sports carnivals, debating and parent information nights has been in place since the beginning of the year. A campaign of rolling stoppages throughout the NT began in Tennant Creek late last month.
In the past fortnight, teachers have received letters from the commissioner for public employment asking if they want to accept the government's proposal and offering individual contracts. The government has also compiled lists of individual teachers involved in industrial action. These have been sent by school principals with a form letter to parents explaining the government's actions.
In February full-page advertisements in the local press asked: "If you were offered a package worth $12.9 million, would you take it?", and "Who are the real victims of the teachers' union industrial action? The kids ... The Northern Territory Government will no longer tolerate the disruption to young Territorians' education."
The day before the rally, two year 11 students were pictured as part of a front-page story in the NT News which claimed that the students were trying to organise a demonstration against the teachers at Sanderson High.
Former NT Trades and Labour Council secretary Mark Crossins, now secretary of AEU-NT, said that membership of the union has nearly doubled during the dispute.