Sydney strikes: NSW schools close as teachers rally for better pay, work conditions
Hundreds of schools have been forced to close as NSW teachers rally in Sydney demanding better pay and work conditions.
National
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Education Minister Sarah Mitchell has revealed students at 350 schools were denied their education on Tuesday because of school strikes with parents forced to take time off work to look after their kids.
Speaking at Claymore Public School, Ms Mitchell said the governments were trying to be the adults in the room - and urged the teachers union to stop striking and come back to the negotiating table.
“It really is pitting teachers, families and students against each other,” she said.
“Today across NSW we’re seeing over 350 schools closed. So students who need to be at school who have really challenging family circumstances are unable to be at school today because of action taken by the union in a single day.”
“I’m disappointed and I’m frustrated on behalf of parents, the hundreds and 1000s of parents that are impacted by this decision today. The parents who can’t go to work today because their children can’t go to school. It’s incredibly unfair.”
Ms Mitchell dismissed the union’s concerns around a teacher shortage and said in NSW the vacancy rate for much of 2021 in the Department of Education had been about 2 per cent, which she said was normal for such a large workforce.
“There seems to be this constant disconnect between what the union says and what I hear on the ground, what teachers tell me each and every day about how rewarding their role is, and the difference that they make in children’s lives,” she said.
Meanwhile, thousands of teachers congregated outside NSW Parliament demanding better pay and work conditions as part of the industrial action.
Chanting “more than thanks,” brandishing signs calling for change and wearing red shirts with the same slogan, teachers across the state united calling for a 7.5 per cent pay rise.
“I use my sick days to catch up on school work,” one sign read.
“Your child deserves better,” read another.
NSW Teachers Federation President Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers were desperate for change.
“There is a deep sense of frustration and a growing resentment that the government is failing to act on teacher shortages and the root cause of those teacher shortages, uncompetitive salaries and unsustainable workloads,” he said.
“The government needs to act.”
He blasted NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell’s blistering attack on the union this morning, accusing them of being a protectionist racket.
“A deep resentment that got even deeper today because this morning we woke up to a media story Minister Attacks Striking Teachers,” and Gavrielatos said.
“An attack on the whole profession.“
Teacher Kylie Hurd, 48, joined the crowd with her daughter Alyssa, 11, who held up a sign saying “I love my teachers, shortages affect students.”
“The workload is out of control and we are getting burned out. A lot of teachers are leaving because of it,” she said.
“I don’t want to be living in a society where there’s a larger rate of illiteracy or a lower rate of university attendance among children. That’s what’s at stake.”
‘SARDINES’: STRIKES PACK IN SYDNEY COMMUTERS
Chaos greeted public transport commuters on Tuesday morning, with some services running only every 30 minutes during peak hour amid strike action from bus and train drivers.
Up to 75 per cent of Sydney’s train network has been impacted by strike action from Rail, Train and Bus Union members, who are refusing to operate “foreign made” trains. They won’t return to work until tomorrow.
Tens of thousands of Sydney commuters are affected by the action with reduced services leading to packed carriages and lengthy wait times.
Social distancing and Covid-safe practice Sydney Trains style.#sydneytrains#transportfornsw@7NewsSydney@TransportforNSW@9NewsSyd#COVID19pic.twitter.com/L0hq8fh7kK
— kapichaky (@Modabaj) December 6, 2021
Just like old times we are crammed in like sardines #sydneytrains#cityrail#cityfailpic.twitter.com/oapx6eRJ9U
— Osman オスマン (@ozman024) December 6, 2021
“Trains will run every 30 minutes on some Sydney Trains suburban lines, and services will be stopping at all stations so customers should expect longer journey times,” a statement from Transport for NSW said.
There are no trains running on the Cumberland line, and intercity train services are operating at a weekend timetable, meaning services to the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Newcastle lines are impacted.
Buses are replacing trains on the T3 Bankstown line between Bankstown and Lidcombe, Liverpool and the City and Lidcombe and Olympic Park. Buses are also replacing trains on the south coast line services between Port Kembla and Wollongong, Wollongong and Thirroul and Wollongong and Kiama.
It comes as about 300 bus drivers from the Smithfield and Hoxton Park depots have walked off the job for 24 hours from 12:01am on Tuesday, following similar action from Inner West drivers on Monday.
Almost 30 bus services are expected to be impacted between Parramatta, Bonnyrigg and Liverpool, including Routes 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808, 809, 812, 813, 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819, 820, 821, 822, 823, 824, 827, 835, 810X, 811X and S10, T80.
With the T5 Cumberland train line from Leppington to Richmond out of action altogether, some commuters could be left with no public transport options at all.
Teachers across NSW are also striking today – another in a series of union actions long suppressed by the pandemic.
“There is massive pent up demand as prices rise and workers demand fairness, and if we don’t see movement on wages we will see more industrial action,” said NSW Unions Secretary Mark Morey, a sentiment expressed by multiple unionists.
“We were happy to do it tough through two years of the pandemic,” said one union official.
“But after 11 years of privatisation by the NSW government, we’ve had enough,” the individual said.
According to ABS data, Australia saw 50 industrial disputes in the quarter ending in September, up from just 11 in the quarter leading up to June 2020 at the height of uncertainty around the pandemic.
While industrial relations have not yet become an issue for the federal government, rising costs of living and the selling off of assets by a series of governments has many predicting the chaos could get worse.
Along with teachers and transport workers, other sectors have already been hit by industrial action as the pandemic’s pressures have eased.
In October, StarTrack workers twice went on strike causing major headaches for business and individual customers.
Strikes by the Maritime Union of Australia against Patrick Terminals through October and November caused significant supply chain disruption.
The prospect of further strikes across the economy beyond the public sector was raised Monday by Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey.
“Bus drivers, teachers, rail workers and other frontline workers bent over backwards to get us through the pandemic (and now) petrol, rent and grocery prices are all on the march,” he said.
“If we want to retain these workers, pay has to keep pace with the cost of living.
“Even the Reserve Bank Governor agrees with the unions on this issue and has called for three per cent annual wage rises.”
Richard Olsen, head of the NSW Transport Workers Union, said that the issue behind his members’ strike was fundamentally one of fairness.
“That’s not a fair system, that’s what drivers want to change, and they are committed to doing whatever it takes to have their voices heard.”
Free market think tank chief Brian Marlow, executive director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, disagreed.
“It is amazing that public sector employees, who have been shielded by taxpayers from destructive Covid policies are now deciding to go on strike, while every day Aussies who work hard in the private sector continue to do it tough,” said Mr Marlow.
“Public sector workers didn’t suffer through massive lay-offs, they didn’t have to shut down their own businesses.
“So it’s bad form for them to throw in the towel all of a sudden given the last two years everyone else has been through.”
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