WA government steps up attacks on teachers

By Anthony Benbow
PERTH — In a dispute with the state Liberal government which goes far beyond wages and work conditions, teachers are now in the ninth month of a campaign to improve public education. The State School Teachers Union of WA (SSTU) is fighting to improve school building maintenance, to keep country and smaller schools open and for curriculum changes that reflect the community interest. It is also calling for smaller class sizes, better lesson preparation time, incentives for country teachers and a 20% wage increase. WA teachers are the lowest paid in the country.
The campaign started with a ban by teachers on voluntary activities such as sporting events, camps and lunchtime duties. This escalated into a weekly two-hour rolling stoppage district by district at the beginning of August.
All these actions have been well supported with 80% of the SSTU membership solidly behind the union leadership. The Court government has refused to negotiate. It has offered a small pay rise in return for losses in conditions, and has tried to get country teachers to sign individual contracts.
A stop-work meeting by teachers in the TAFE sector on September 1 voted for a three-day strike, starting September 4. This was overwhelmingly supported by TAFE teachers in the city, and also in many regional centres such as Albany, Bunbury and Geraldton. Many students stood on picket lines with their lecturers.
The government has now offered to negotiate. Green Left Weekly asked David Kelly, an organiser with the SSTU, about the government's latest move. "We were offered negotiations on an informal, not formal, basis. We were presented with a document that included all the things we'd be opposing, and told that was the basis for the 'informal' talks."
Getting the government to negotiate was "a real step forward", Kelly said. "We compromised on a few things, but the essentials of what we wanted to use as a starting point for formal talks was there."
At the next round of talks, the government produced a new document that included items the union had not previously seen and could not agree to. This included making teachers work extra unpaid time each year.
"The negotiations could not continue on that basis", Kelly said. "The government set the whole thing up. They will try to make it look like the SSTU refused to negotiate. Their aim is to drive a wedge between the union and the community, to undermine the support we have."
Kelly said that the union, from the start, expected some "parental backlash", and decided to make sure that parents were aware of the longer-term issues. It has produced a broadsheet for this purpose.
"Many parents are upset and say, 'Let us do the camps and excursions'. What they have to understand is that if we let them, the government will say, 'There you are, the community can do it', and the parents will be doing it for evermore."
"It's clear that the government is out to break the dispute in the next couple of weeks. Therefore, we need people to keep supporting us", Kelly said.