Tasmanian public servants pack Hobart City Hall as pay rise fight continues
Thousands of public servants packed into Hobart’s City Hall for the largest union rally in a decade as part of an escalating campaign in pursuit of a better pay deal.
Politics
Don't miss out on the headlines from Politics. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THOUSANDS of public servants packed into Hobart’s City Hall for the largest union rally in a decade as part of an escalating campaign of industrial action in pursuit of a better pay deal.
Teachers, nurses, firefighters, prison officers, park rangers, paramedics and public servants from almost every public sector agency heard ACTU secretary Sally McManus say the national union movement was united behind their fight.
“I am here because you deserve a pay rise,” she said.
“Change only happens when people stand up for what’s right and what’s fair and they unite and stick together and that’s what I see here.
“If you stick together and stick to what you believe in and you keep fighting and you do not give up, you will win.”
Unions representing the majority of the state’s public sector workers are fighting the State Government for a pay rise of around 9 per cent over three years, a figure around 2 per cent higher than the Government is currently offering in stop-start negotiations that have run for months without a breakthrough.
The meeting loudly passed resolutions rejecting Government pay offers, rejecting attempts to wind back their working conditions and committing to a campaign of further — and escalating — industrial action.
Wednesday’s Hobart rally was the third in a series of major meetings in regional centres plus smaller gatherings in Zeehan, Strahan, St Helens, Smithton, Scottsdale and online.
Health and Community Sector Union chief Tim Jacobson said unions were determined to prevail in the dispute, no matter how long it took.
“The Government has not yet experienced how tough we are and how much of a fight we have left in us,” he said.
“The cost of living is going up, the pressure on all of us is skyrocketing, the community is behind us because they know that if we can’t attract and retain quality staff, we all suffer.”
Before the event, Labor leader Rebecca White told reporters the dispute was being prolonged by the Government’s stubbornness.
“This has dragged on for nine months now and it could be fixed right now if the Government were serious about providing a pay increase to Tasmanian workers in our health system, in our education system, and right across the public sector that keeps up with the cost of living,” she said.
“My expectation is that the Government will have to take a very serious look at this and sit down with workers and negotiate in good faith a pay increase that keeps up with the cost of living or deal with further stop work meetings just like this one.
“People are fed up by this Government and the way they’ve been treated, they’re fed up with being taken for granted, being expected to work overtime and double shifts and an extraordinary amount of hours and not being paid appropriately.”
TEACHERS CLAIM SUPPORT FOR STRIKE ACTION
Treasurer Peter Gutwein took particuar aim at the Australian Education Union for “doing their very best to create as much political disruption in the lead up to the federal election”.
Mr Gutwein said the Government had forecast that CPI would be about 2.5 per cent and the state would receive lower GST returns in the coming financial years.
“That’s why we have provided a wage agreement that is what we can afford not just today but importantly over the term of the agreement,” he said.
At a rally in Launceston on Wednesday morning, Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday told unionists that private sector workers are also being offered wage increases of just 2 per cent because their bosses are taking the lead from the State Government.
“There would be very few unions that I can think of that haven’t come to me and said: ‘We got 2 per cent at the bargaining table this week’,” Ms Munday said.
“If it’s good enough for the Government, it’s good enough for business and if they can save a buck on labour, they will absolutely do it.
“I really think the Government has got some broader responsibility to wear for low wage outcomes because they’ve had this policy for a long time [and] they’re proposing to have it for however many more years.”
About 1500 workers — including members of the Australian Education Union, the Community and Public Sector Union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, the Health and Community Sector Union, United Voice, the United Firefighters Union and the Australian Workers’ Union — gathered at Launceston’s Civic Square for the rally.
Ms Munday said public sector workers would only accept a wage increase of at least 3 per cent in the first year of new agreements — a figure based on the CPI.
“[That’s] just a keep-up number, it’s not even a catch-up number and I know that nurses, teachers and fireys stand to be the worst paid in the country,” she said.
“If they get less than that, they will be the worst paid in the country.”
Wednesday’s strikes came after almost 1000 people took strike action in Burnie on Tuesday.
MORE OF TODAY’S NEWS
SPECIAL DELIVERY BOUND FOR SYMMONS PLAINS
WORLD OF PROMISES FROM SWEET SMELL OF EXCESS
AUTUMN BURN-OFF SEASON FIRES UP
TasPorts refused to build new Spirit berth: outgoing chief
TT-Line sounded the alarm that berthing facilities at Devonport remained the “single biggest risk” in the whole project well before the state election was called, a committee heard.
‘Never witnessed such an appalling lack of support from government’
The former TT-Line chairman has lashed the state government for it’s ‘appalling lack of support’ while the company worked to deliver two new Spirit of Tasmania ferries. The latest >>