New South Wales (NSW) Government Slams Teachers Union
Over Strike

Union Strikes To Preserve Status Quo Class Sizes and
Staffing Levels

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nsw-govt-slams-teachers-union-over-strike-20120518-1yub2.html

The Sydney Morning Herald
May 18, 2012

The NSW government says school reforms are for
students, not the teachers union, which has threatened
further industrial action unless a review of the
changes is carried out.

Tens of thousands of teachers walked off the job for
two hours on Friday morning to protest the government's
reforms, which the NSW Teachers Federation fears will
cut staff numbers and increase class sizes.

The teachers voted in favour of a review of the Local
Schools, Local Decisions policy but did not specify
what type of industrial action would be pursued if the
government did not co-operate.

The NSW government says the reforms will allow
principals more control over school decisions,
including managing 70 per cent of a school's budget and
hiring up to 50 per cent of staff.

Education Minister Adrian Piccoli said the two-hour
strike during school hours was "unbelievable".

"We are not going to be held to ransom by the Teachers
Federation," he said in a statement.

"These reforms are to suit students, not the union."

But the union said teachers were sick of being "locked
out" of discussions about policy.

"(The government) keeps treating the profession as
though they're just chess pieces on the board that it
can shift around," union president Maurie Mulheron told
reporters in Sydney.

He said teachers had voted in "unprecedented numbers"
to reject the policy and for the government to
reconsider the reforms.

"The profession has got to a stage where they're sick
of things being done to them," he said.

About 750,000 students were affected by the strike
action on Friday which ended at 11am (AEST).

A parents group said while they did not always support
such strikes because of the impact on children's
learning, they fully understand the reasons for the
action.

"We'd actually been asking for some of the same
questions to be answered," P&C Federation spokeswoman
Rachael Sowden told AAP on Friday.

"We would have some concerns around class sizes and
we'd like to look at some sort of minimum guarantees
(under the proposed Local Schools Local Decisions
reform policy)."

The union is calling for guarantees that class sizes
won't increase, and permanent staff, specialist
teachers and executive staff will not be lost.

"We're not even asking for anything extra, we're not
even asking for one extra dollar in the education
budget," Mr Mulheron said.

"We're asking for the current status quo of guarantees
to be confirmed."

He refused to put a time limit on the government's
response to calls for a review.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/nsw-govt-slams-teachers-union-over-strike-20120518-1yub2.html

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