NSW Labor Council Secretary John Robertson, Federation General Secretary Barry Johnson, Labor Council Organiser Susan Sheather and Federation relief Industrial Officer Peter Walsh take a look at the new union website.

Have resources, will teach about unions

By Kerri Carr

An online resource for NSW teachers that provides an insight into both the historical and contemporary role of unions in Australia was launched on October 23.

The UnionTeach website (www.labor.net.au/teach) states it "will help NSW teachers provide their students with a better understanding of Australia's industrial relations system, how it operates and the rights and responsibilities of both employers and employees within the system".

At a pre-launch briefing NSW Labor Council Secretary John Robertson said he hoped the site would become a resource that people would use.

"There's lesson plans, resources, fact sheets, a glossary, links and an opportunity to give feedback," Mr Robertson said.

"There's case studies of specific issues that have happened in NSW.

"People can digest that more easily," he said.

Mr Robertson said fact sheets had been developed in consultations with unions so that all the information was up to date.

"Fact sheets are no more than two pages, so they're easily downloadable.

"The glossary is quite detailed," he added.

"I'm personally very pleased with the site.

"Hopefully it will be over-utilised."

Labor Council Organiser and project committee member Susan Sheather said a Federation campaigns course entitled "Unions -- the school curriculum" drafted materials that were used to campaign for inclusion of specific references to unions and their place in society in the NSW curriculum.

Ms Sheather said that once the Board of Studies and the government approved their inclusion in the Work Education 7-10 and Civics and Citizenship 7-10 syllabuses the NSW Labor Council conducted a follow up course to develop resources to make sure unions are taught in schools and make sure there are resources to teach it.

"Because teachers are time poor we could see there was a need to get the information together in one place.

"The website is a hub for information. You don't have to do a lot of searching," she said.

Ms Sheather said discussions are underway to get unions specifically mentioned in the Commerce syllabus.

"There's already cross curriculum content for subjects like history and geography," she added.

Federation relief Industrial Officer Peter Walsh said the website had been developed over the past 18 months with involvement and support from Federation, the NSW/ACT Independent Education Union, NSW Labor Council, some interest from other affiliated unions as well as support from Ian West MLC.

He said the contribution of Federation's representatives on various Board Curriculum Committees allowed the project to proceed.

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