Freedom Socialist Bulletin • Number 36 • Summer/Autumn 2007

UnionEyes


Teacher activists demand ongoing employment

Grassroots education activists are campaigning to demand that their elected union officials make the fight to secure ongoing employment a union priority. Red Bingham, a veteran educator and Australian Education Union (AEU) member, takes a look at the history.

It's summer. In my industry, education, a huge number of teachers are covered by short-term contracts. They receive unemployment as their Christmas present. But it wasn't always this way.

Teacher unions opposed fixed-term contract teaching positions in schools in the '70s and '80s. In Victoria, teachers took industrial action against "limited tenure." They were militant and prepared to lose pay. In secondary schools, teachers signed a pledge. If one member was asked to take an extra lesson or have a student in excess of the agreed maximum, then not only would that teacher stop work, but all the signatories would. These wildcat walkouts panicked the Liberal government, and it dropped the highly unpopular limited tenure mode of employment. Militant unionism triumphed!

From the mid-80s, Victoria had a Labor government. The worry for ongoing teachers was to be declared "in excess." If a school had falling numbers, the principal could nominate a teacher "in excess," and they would be transferred to a school in the same region and retain their conditions and holiday pay.

In 1992, Jeff Kennett was elected and applied Thatcherite slash-and-burn policies. Thousands of public servants lost their jobs, scores of schools closed and the land was sold to property developers. "Schools of the Future" was introduced, which made each school responsible for its own recruitment. With this, the security of ongoing employment was gone. Teachers could be hired on short-term contracts.

Seven years later, Kennett was thrown out of office. The Labor government of Steve Bracks promised a better deal for unions and more industrial democracy for workers. But these promises were hollow.

Superficially, things improved with the AEU and the government talking. However, "Schools of the Future" is still there.

With teachers' wages coming from the school budget, many decision makers casualised their schools. They could get five teachers on 12-month contracts for the cost of four ongoing ones. In 1999, contract teachers were 18.4% of the teaching service, but seven years later this had fallen only fractionally to 17% (source: AEU News, November 2006.)

And what has the AEU leadership done about this? Not much. They extracted recognition from Bracks that ongoing would be the "preferred mode of employment." But the officials, reluctant to damage the cosy relationship they had developed with their Labor mates, lacked the resolve to campaign effectively for the abolition of the contract system.

This is where union activists come in. Many recognise that contracts are used to divide workers. The task is to get things changed politically at the statewide level. Both the union leaders and the state government must be held to account.

Union sub-branches are encouraged to pass this motion and send it to the AEU: "This sub-branch of the AEU notes with concern the AEU's failure to make significant inroads in its opposition to the casualisation of Victorian teachers. To this end, we demand that the AEU executive outlines a campaign that will completely eliminate the contract teaching system from Victorian schools."

Putting pressure on the government is essential. Picketing the Education Minister's office would go down well. Getting letters to the editor published is another good strategy.

Teacher activists need to keep in touch, think creatively and organise. It's time for Bracks to end the hated contract system and to guarantee ongoing employment for all teachers who want it.

Contact Red Bingham at redbingham @ hotmail.com.au