TAFE teachers to strike March 10

By Phil Bradley

TAFE teachers will strike for 24 hours on March 10 over fees and funding.

A rally will be held in Farrer Place, in Bent Street, Sydney in front of the Department of Education and Training. Meet at 10.30am for the rally and entertainment before a march to Parliament House.

Regional rallies with marches to local MPs' offices have also been organised.

Teachers are taking action because about 50,000 intending students will not be able to afford the excessive TAFE fee increases of up to 227 per cent. As a consequence, these people's life chances would be seriously damaged unless the Carr Government intervenes sympathetically. The reduction in teaching hours will also put hundreds of members' jobs at risk. All this when the 2003 Senate Inquiry into Current and Future Skills Needs identified serious skills shortages in numerous vocational areas across Australia.

Despite repeated approaches to the NSW Government, so far there has been no undertaking to reduce TAFE fees to a level accessible to all or to reverse funding cuts.

That's why TAFE Teachers Association members across NSW stopped work on February 24 to consider a recommendation for a 24-hour strike with rallies on Wednesday March 10.

Members attending these meetings supported this recommendation.

There was strong feedback that the Government must reverse its funding cuts, as these are at the heart of the TAFE fees dispute and workload problems being suffered by teachers and other members.

An analysis of NSW Budget papers shows that after allowing for inflation and increases in equivalent full time student hours (EFTS), TAFE NSW operating expenditure has been cut by 25 per cent in the past five years. This is equivalent to a shortfall of $450 million in 2003/04 alone.

The 24-hour strike will therefore not only be about ensuring that fees are reduced, but also about the proper funding of TAFE so that it can provide the quality vocational education and training needed in this state. The industrial action will need to be supported by political action. Federation thus urges members to continue to lobby local politicians, the Treasurer and the Premier to significantly increase TAFE funding in real terms. This is particularly important to do now, before the NSW Budget is released.

Federation's website has a TAFE Fees campaign engine to enable emails to be sent directly to politicians.

The union congratulates members, students and the community for their strong support of the TAFE fees and funding campaign.

Phil Bradley is the Assistant General Secretary (Post School Education).

Schools asked to support

Regional rallies

TAFE student squeezed out by fee increases

TAFE advertisement