Australian Education Union, Victorian Branch

campaign
The loudest message
THE list of strike-closed schools
that Mary Bluett read out was so
long the Auslan interpreter gave up
and signed “etcetera, etcetera”. All
seats in the 11,000 capacity Hisense
Arena were taken. Members from
Gippsland rose in the dead of night
and drove through floods. Others from
Shepparton got caught in traffic and
found the doors locked, house full.
To call the June 7 stopwork rally a
success would be putting it mildly.
It was the first such rally to be
broadcast live to the satellite rally in
Mildura — and the first time that a
rally was also organised in Wodonga.
And it was the first marked by
social media, with the volume of
traffic generated by teachers and
supporters so great that the union’s
twitter tag, @AEUVictoria, was
among the most used on Twitter
across Australia that day. Members
commented on the debates, posted
pictures and read messages of
support from parents, nurses and
others.
When a picture of the march taken
from an office block appeared on the
AEU’s Facebook page, 1100 people
gave it the thumbs up within 48 hours.
Those at the rally showed their
determination to take on the Baillieu
Government — not just over its
derisory pay offer to teachers but
its attempts to divide the profession
through performance pay and its
vandalism to public education from the
axing of student support to its cuts to
VCAL and TAFE.
Members agreed to a long and
committed campaign, including further
stopworks and, for the first time in
years, bans and limitations, which
were not possible during the last
pay dispute because of the Howard
Government’s WorkChoices legislation.
Branch president Mary Bluett told
the crowd, including those watching
on screens outside the arena and
members in Mildura: “By your action
today, you have put Ted Baillieu on
notice.
“Premier, Minister (Hall), you
promised, your word. We teach our
students about values and a key value
is ‘don’t make promises you don’t
intend to keep’. You are judged on
your word. Premier, Minister, you have
failed the values test.”
Members heartily applauded a
call for an end to the widespread
use of contracts, especially for new
teachers. A call from the platform for
members on contracts to raise their
arms brought a shamefully wide show
of hands.
Bluett’s most scathing comments
were for the Government’s performance
pay and workload proposals.
“Secondary teachers would
increase their average face-to-face
teaching by one hour a week. No
time allowance for jobs like career
counselling, year-level coordinator or
curriculum leader. That will save the
Government money by reducing 1000
secondary teachers from the payroll,
probably by getting rid of 1000
contract teachers.
12 aeu news | june 2012