NSW teachers stand up to unrelenting attacks

Vanguard April 2010 p. 12
Louisa L.

Teachers’ unions nationwide face unrelenting attacks as the public sector is hammered by Labor governments. These attacks go further than those in Kennett’s Victoria.

The NSW Teachers’ Federation (NSWTF) is the largest public sector union in the country. Education Minister Julia Gillard singled it out within the Australian Education Union’s anti-league table battle. It galls her that the NSWTF, unlike most other teacher unions, lies outside the web of penalties of Labor’s version of Workchoices, and has proved time and again that it is willing to take industrial action and win, even under threat of fines.

Gillard knows that this year’s Australia-wide NAPLAN tests, upon which the league tables are based, are under threat. She shows her lack of understanding when she gleefully threatens to send in contractors to administer the exams. Imagine it … “Oh, you’ll have to find the keys to the hall … and set up the chairs and desks … and find the kids ... yes they’re in the playground ...”

Unless Gillard backs down, the tests won’t happen. NSW public schools will be rock solid. Though most private schools and a small number of state schools may cave in, no meaningful tables will be possible.

Because of the nature of our relatively individual work, teachers lack the instinctive collective consciousness of the industrial working class for whom production is highly socialised. But long history of struggle has built within teachers a powerful body of knowledge which reinforces commitment to collective action. This is particularly true of older teachers, who educate younger ones on the importance of collectivism. It’s why reactionary Fairfax commentator Miranda Devine, who described the tables as a first step in destroying teacher unions, lauded moves to sack veteran teachers and replace them with ten-week-trained younger teachers in the league tables’ so-called ‘failing’ schools.

Isolating TAFE
This attack overlaps with attempts to impose ‘performance’ pay, and in NSW to wipe out the transfer system which has enabled remote or ‘difficult’ schools to get staff. In February last year, teachers saved the transfer system together with salary improvements for NSW school teachers. The government and top bureaucrats isolated TAFE teachers from the agreement and soon after demanded outrageous, but given their track record, probably predicable, concessions from TAFE teachers.

NSW TAFE had been difficult to organise. With 70% of staff casual, and hours ranging from 7am to 10pm, campuses spread across the state and years of funding cuts, widespread demoralisation had set in. Added to this was a perception that the joint TAFE-schools campaign was more focussed on schools. TAFE industrial action had been muted.

However the government’s demands crystallised widespread action and built up to a huge TAFE rally in September. Wildcat strikes swept the system. The government referred the dispute to the Industrial Relations Commission, where a Full Bench went even further than the government.

An even bigger rally was held in Sydney Town Hall in February this year, despite threats of fines against the union. The names, serial numbers and worksites of 4000 TAFE teachers known to have taken action were then listed by the Commission, coupled with threats. By this time TAFE teachers in most Sydney, Hunter and Illawarra colleges had gone out for up to five days. Many were fired up and prepared to go further, though those without permanency were wavering. In March, an agreement directly with the Minister overthrew most, but not all, of the Full Bench decision. A substantial group of teachers were prepared to fight on and denounced the agreement.

Militant unity
This militancy is to be treasured and nurtured, rather than feared by the union, though misdirected anger may be exploited by government lackeys, as they exploited the shorter official working hours of TAFE teachers, particularly compared to primary teachers.

The greatest task facing teacher unions, including the NSWTF, is to build militant unity. Teamed with tactics drawn from deep analysis of reality, militant unity can turn the negatives in the TAFE agreement into positives, both empowering TAFE teachers to maintain conditions in each college and into lessons that will inform future campaigns. It means analysing the fault lines between different public education sectors and building campaigns to positively overcome discrepancies in working conditions, rather than allowing the government to drag everyone down to the worst conditions. It means supplementing current organisational strength and continuing to utilise different methods of organisation for different sectors, rather than providing a one-size-fits-all method.

Finally, it means recognising that as long big business is dominant, no victory is ever permanent, and future generations will be condemned to fight and refight battles that previous ones thought were secure. The only cure is to get rid of capitalism, no matter how strong it seems, no matter how long it takes, no matter how hard the battle, and build a system based on service to the vast majority of people, not the tiny minority.