Sue Bull, Melbourne
Thousands of Victorian teachers took to the streets of Melbourne on March 3, in protest at stalled negotiations with the state Labor government over their pay and conditions campaigns.
It was an historic day of unity as 12,000 public school teachers rallied with 5000 Catholic school teachers outside the Victorian parliament.
Mary Bluett, state president of the Australian Education Union (AEU), said that at least 30,000 teachers were participating in what was probably the largest teachers' strike in Victoria's history. "As I speak now, we know of 95 [public] schools that are closed", she told the rally. Yet there were also some tales of treachery — such as at Maralinga Primary School, where the principal had hired five casual relief teachers to scab on striking teachers.
Both the AEU and the Victorian Independent Education Union (Catholic section) were taking 24-hour stop-work action that severely disrupted or closed down some 1500 schools throughout the state.
The state Labor government has offered teachers a 9% wage increase over three years — made up of an annual 2.25% rise, plus a further 0.75% increase per year for "improved service delivery". Currently, the government wants teachers to return to school a week earlier at the beginning of the school year. The offer would also see teachers' wages drop behind the CPI within the lifetime of the agreement.
At the Rod Laver Arena, where the AEU met earlier in the day, Marie O'Halloran, president of the NSW Teachers Federation, said her members had just won an interim six-month wage increase of 5.5%.
"The actions of your state government are nothing more than utterly provocative", O'Halloran told the assembled public school teachers. "2.25 is a calculated insult."
Bluett then informed the meeting that the offer is being made at a time when the state government may have over $1 billion surplus in its budget. Certainly, it had $769 million surplus in the six months to December last year. Yet the teachers' demands — which include a 30% pay increase over three years — are being described as "exorbitant" and "excessive".
Bluett said that the dispute was not purely about pay. Teachers are determined to cap their class sizes at 25 students. They also want to get rid of the individual contract teaching system, which has ballooned to cover 18.1% of public school teachers. She described how some teachers have been on contract for so long that they have now become eligible for long-service leave. Excessive workloads and a fairer careers structure were also significant issues.
Most teachers were extremely heartened by the huge show of support for the strike. Parents, students and school councils in many places offered solidarity.
Even the Melbourne Age — which, in its March 3 editorial, denounced the "hugely disruptive" strike and the teachers' pay claim as "simply unsustainable at this stage of the economic cycle" (i.e., when the economy is allegedly "booming") — had to, hypocritically, declare that it "too, has sympathy for teachers".
AEU membership in Victoria has grown to 30,000, with 2600 new members joining in this year alone. This is in a climate in which 60 Victorian schools are drifting into serious debt. The state government has, on average, only increased its funding to public schools by 2.1% — well below the current inflation rate.
Despite state Labor government rhetoric about increased funding, it has slashed supplementation grants so that those schools with an ageing work force cannot cover their wages bills.
There will clearly be no help forthcoming from the federal Coalition government, which is giving $4.4 billion to non-government schools that tutor 1.04 million students and $2.5 billion to public schools, at which 2.25 million students are enrolled. Even Wesley College, where every student has a laptop, gets $7.9 million from Canberra.
The AEU has committed to a campaign of rolling half-day strikes during second term and another statewide strike in July if necessary. Many teachers in regional areas have already begun to organise local rallies and marches that will seek to involve not only teachers but also parents and students.
From Green Left Weekly, March 10, 2004.
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