City supports country colleagues

Warialda teachers took part in joint stopwork action.

The staffing campaign shows teachers are willing to stand up for their colleagues.

By Owen Hasler

Warialda Public School, Warialda High School and Tingha Public School teachers were joined by colleagues from Sutherland, Picton, Eastern Suburbs, Inner City and the North Coast when they took stopwork action over the staffing dispute on July 30.

The Warialda schools (both 4 point non-incentive schools under the expired staffing agreement) and Tingha Public School (a 6 point incentive school under the expired staffing agreement) joined the tandem action in order to highlight the effects of proposed staffing changes in rural and remote areas of the state.

Warialda High School Federation Representative Len Fleming said: "We were delighted by the support we received from across the state.

"We had only expected schools in the Sutherland area to join with us but we were joined by over 20 schools from four different education regions - a great show of support."

"The teachers at Warialda and Tingha realise that the dismantling of the statewide staffing transfer system will place their students at even greater risk of missing out on having appropriately trained and qualified teachers and this is not acceptable to them," Mr Fleming said.

Warialda Public School Federation Representative Amber Lucas provided members with a copy of a letter from former Warialda assistant principal, Nicole Bartlett, who had utilised the expression of interest (EOI) process provided in the old agreement to gain a transfer to the North Coast region.

"Nicole emphasised that it is vital for schools like those in Warialda that the service transfer system and EOI procedures continue," Ms Lucas said.

"This will ensure that more teachers are secure in the knowledge that they can live and work as part of a rural or isolated community, commit themselves fully to the job of teaching but then have the opportunity to apply the skills they have learned to new situations in other schools when they activate their service transfer."

The combined Warialda teachers presented a united front with placards and Federation banner to television TV stations Prime and NBN, before utilising the remaining time to write letters of protest to the Premier, Director-General Michael Coutts-Trotter, local MP Richard Torbay, as well as letters of thanks to the teachers in the favourable areas of the state who supported their action on the day.

Tingha Public School also forwarded their protest letter to the Director-General.

Schools that took action in support of Warialda and Tingha included: Taveners Hill Infants; Bangor, Birchgrove, Double Bay, Forest Lodge, Iluka, Kegworth, Kirrawee, Kareela, Tempe and Woronora public schools; Bates Drive, Cook and Edgeware schools; and Caringbah, Dulwich Visual Arts and Design, Picton and Kirrawee high schools.

Owen Hasler is a Country Organiser.

©2000-2002 NSWTF Online is a resource for teachers
provided by the NSW Teachers Federation.
[Authorisation of election comment] [Privacy]

http://www.nswtf.org.au/journal_extras/citycountry.html
Last Modified: 07 Aug 2008