‘It’s a really proud day’: Illawarra’s public educators heard in ‘unprecedented’ teacher strike
There were hundreds of teachers from the Illawarra in an “unprecedented” NSW Teachers Federation rally in the heart of Sydney on Wednesday as calls for equitable pay and conditions grow louder.
Illawarra Star
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Scores of public school teachers from the Illawarra trekked to the Sydney CBD on Wednesday morning to march in the 15,000-strong NSW Teachers Federation rally on Macquarie Street.
It is the second time the union’s members have taken industrial action in the space of five months as the relations between them and the NSW government continue to simmer.
Many of the protesters from the Illawarra travelled to the city via train with members of the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union and the South Coast Labour Council seeing them off from Wollongong Station.
The Illawarra cohort assembled with teachers from across the state at Hyde Park just before 10am with the raucous crowd chanting slogans such as “One, two, three, four, not enough teachers we need more” and “No teachers, no future”.
The protest headed 300 metres north in front of Parliament House where union executives and teachers from Uralla, Braidwood and Sydney gathered, with Teachers Federation deputy president Henry Rajendra declaring the turnout as “unprecedented”.
Tash Watt, the vice president of the Illawarra Teachers Federation, attended the rally with her daughter, Ella, and partner Trysten Loades who is the deputy principal at Keira High School.
“It’s a really proud day for the teachers of the Illawarra and for the NSW Teachers Federation members,” Ms Watt said.
“Teachers taking strike action is not a flippant thing. Obviously they lose pay and they have to organise themselves and make a commitment to taking action.
“So when [Education Minister Sarah Mitchell] says things like ‘the union bosses are enacting this’ that’s clearly incorrect and that’s been demonstrated today.
“Teachers don’t do something like this unless they have to and want to and they see the justice in it.”
The two primary demands of the union is for the government to overturn the 2.5 per cent salary cap on teachers’ wages and allow teachers an extra two hours of “release time” per week to plan lessons.
The Teachers Federation argue this will help combat the catastrophic teacher shortage across the state where there are 2383 casual vacancies with nearly 200 of those being from the Illawarra’s northern suburbs through to the Victorian border.
Ms Watt is hoping it’s the last time teachers will need to take industrial action, but she warned they still had plenty of fight left in them.
“It was an excellent rally,” she said.
“There were definitely more people here [than in December]. Teachers feel more empowered, they’re united and I can’t see them backing away from what we’re doing.
“There’s nothing in this campaign that doesn’t speak to the truth of their work and the justice of what we’re doing – this campaign is going to go on until we win.”
Teachers Federation president Angelo Gavrielatos was the final person to address the crowd, and afterwards he told The Illawarra Star that while the protest’s epicentre was in Sydney, unlike an earthquake, the most serious consequences of the teacher shortages were felt further afield.
“We have had teachers here from right across NSW,” Mr Gavrielatos said.
“Some teachers have woken up at 4.30 in the morning to get to this and of course there were many thousands more in regional centres across NSW.
“We know the teacher shortage is impacting everywhere across the state from Bondi to Broken Hill, but we also know the teacher shortage impacts first and most acutely in regional, rural and remote settings.
“This is about every kid, in every school, no matter where that is.“
The secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, Arthur Rorris, turned out in support of his fellow unionists and called on Premier Dominic Perrottet to address the teachers’ concerns.
“This is just solidarity pure and simple,” he said.
“Everyone is behind our teachers because they know what’s happening at the moment is not only unjust for the teachers, but it’s letting our children down and everyone gets it.
“The Premier is playing catch-up politics and the reality is these teachers are not going away. They’re getting stronger, this is a matter of time and he should save that time and get some good will by negotiating properly.”
The protest finished shortly after 11am with teachers quickly dispersing as they prepare to return to the classroom on Thursday.
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