How far weʻve come

Clare started teaching in England and Uganda, soon becoming active in the National Union of Teachers in London. She brought that activism to South Australia in 1977 as a classroom teacher. The South Australian Institute of Teachers (SAIT) had been conservative and dominated by Principals, but CLARE AND OTHER CLASSROOM TEACHERS BEGAN TO ASSERT THEIR INFLUENCE. CLARE’S CLASSROOM TEACHER NETWORK WAS A PART OF THAT MOVEMENT.

Clare served two terms as SAIT VicePresident and two terms as President - always campaigning for classroom teachers, workplace organisation, democratically determined policy, and education.

During Clare’s Presidency, SAIT joined with the national Australian Teachers Union to form the Australian Education Union (SA Branch). Subsequently, Clare was elected National Vice-President of the AEU. During her term of office, Clare was an International Delegate for Australian Educators at the first World Conference of Teacher Organisations in Sweden. At the end of her term, in 1996, Clare was made a Life Member of the AEU.

In 1993, Clare was endorsed as an Independent Education candidate in the State Election for the SA Legislative Council by Branch Executive and State Council and, after receiving the highest number of

First Preferences other than major party tickets, was the last candidate excluded from the count.

The South Australian Trades and Labor Council (UTLCSA) was at this time affiliated with the AEU and held fortnightly meetings of hundreds of delegates. Clare was elected to the UTLCSA Executive and subsequently as the first woman President. This placed Clare on the National Executive of the Australian Congress of Trade Unions (ACTU).

Clare returned to classroom teaching in 1996, became the AEU representative at Oakbank Area School, Council Delegate, and was re-elected to State Executive. After ‘retiring’ from the Department, Clare began tutoring at UniSA and Flinders, completed a PhD through the University of Technology Sydney, and became a Senior Lecturer and Director in the School of Education at Flinders University. Clare joined the National Tertiary Education Union and was elected to their State Executive. In 2014 Clare was elected as Academic Staff Member to the Flinders University Council.

CLARE MCCARTY PASSED AWAY IN 2016, STILL TEACHING RIGHT TO THE LAST.

WORDS BY DOUGLAS MCCARTHY.

The concept of ‘union’ was an essential aspect of Jan Lee’s life. Jan held the core belief that all workers are deserving of livelihood based on fair, just and equitable principles. And that respect for professions is built and fought for through the work of unions. Being an AEU member means being part of a collective voice that believes public education and those that choose to work as public educators are deserving of professional respect.

EDUCATION IS A POWERFUL TOOL. WHEN WE RECEIVE AN EDUCATION, WE ARE GIVEN THE TOOLS TO PARTICIPATE FULLY IN SOCIETY AND TO MAKE INFORMED CHOICES ABOUT OUR LIVES.

The value of a strong public education system allows all people, regardless of circumstances outside of our control, to have the opportunity to wield this power.

Public educators give value to this practice. Even when this value is questioned, we continue to work toward achieving the best outcomes for our students. Public educators are a collective of their own and the AEU brings them together, enabling a partnership that capitalises on this strength.

As individuals, we can represent ourselves, but our influence is limited. As a collective of union members, we wield a power that allows us to bargain for a better future. A future not just for ourselves, but for everyone. For Jan, this was non-negotiable, as was being a member of the AEU.

Public education will always be a political battle ground because of its immense power to transform society. Jan knew this and knew that the only way to fight back was to ensure a strong union came to the bargaining table. As a collective, the AEU would, and does, continue to work toward achieving respect for the profession and its students. And that is the continued hope for the future of education.

JANET LEE PASSED AWAY IN 2021.

WORDS BY PHOEBE GUNN.

HOW HAS BEING AN AEU MEMBER SHAPED YOUR CAREER? WHAT YOUR HOPES FOR THE FUTURE EDUCATION?

HOW HAS BEING AN SHAPED YOUR CAREER? YOUR HOPES FOR EDUCATION?

I joined the SA Institute of Teachers (SAIT), now AEU SA, as a young teacher.

UNION MEMBERSHIP MADE ME FEEL PART OF A PROFESSIONAL BODY AND THAT I WAS NOT ALONE IN MY CLASSROOM. I HAD A SENSE OF BELONGING .

When I took my first union position, I became the workplace representative, allowing me to be involved and active in my profession.

Within a few years, I discovered how vulnerable our contract members were. Assisted by AEU SA industrial staff, I was called on to support a fellow member whose naivete placed her at risk. This experience consolidated my view that the least experienced, the most precariously employed, and the youngest teachers need the solid support of a union and its members. I engaged in the democratic processes of union committees and Branch Council and learnt how power can be expressed.

My first industrial action as a union member was when SAIT members took strike action in support of School Services Officers’ demands to be properly recognised and valued for their work in schools. There was a powerful sense amongst teaching members that the collective strength of the whole membership was essential to drive change for our poorest paid members.

For me, the curriculum, how it is taught and resourced, and how educators are professionally developed and supported are integral to AEU membership. My lived philosophy is encapsulated by the following words, which guided my union and professional work and speak to the future of education:

"The truly radical teacher must work on two fronts simultaneously: the pedagogical front to be sure, where we must more than ever be bold and innovative because the immediate future requires no less of us; but also on the political and social front, for the vigorous defence of democratic rights and workers’ rights."

- Celestin Freinet, 1935

LYNN HALL AEU LIFE MEMBER

Cheryl Harris made a remarkable contribution to the AEU throughout her life. Cheryl was a strong advocate for Aboriginal people and AEU members, chairing the Aboriginal Education Consultative Committee (AECC) meeting for many years. As a member of the AECC, Cheryl contributed significantly to the plan’s development and engaged artist Susan Betts, whose work is featured on the AEU RAP document. Cheryl was a founding member of the Reconciliation Committee and was always an integral part of the Aboriginal Members’ Conference. Cheryl represented members in the Lincoln Area for many years, tirelessly advocating for her region in area and branch council meetings. Cheryl was always an active and engaged unionist whose passion was evident whenever she spoke about unionism and representing our members. Her knowledge and wisdom were invaluable to us all.

CHERYL HARRIS PASSED AWAY IN 2022.

WORDS BY MICHELE APPLETON.

My activism began at Wattle Park Teachers College in 1967, where I helped organise a national student teachers’ association. In 1970, my career was interrupted by National Service including active service South Vietnam and returned to Wattle Park Teachers College on a rehabilitation scholarship. It was the union that kept in contact with me in Vietnam and the union President successfully intervening on my behalf when the only communication I received from the Education department was an alleged salary overpayment of $47.20 for the first 4 weeks of my National Service. While teaching at Cleve Area School, I became Sub-Branch Secretary and President of the Upper Eastern Eyre Peninsula Teachers Association and worked to ensure teachers did not have to use their sick leave for illnesses such as mumps or chicken pox.

In 1979, I became an Organiser for SAIT, organising members on Eyre Peninsula and Northern regions of the state. I worked to represent the interests of government employees in country locations to Ministers, negotiating rentfree housing for teachers in the APY Lands.

I served as a board member of Reconciliation South Australia and worked to establish the Aboriginal Education Workers Award in 1987 - the first culturally based award in Australia. In 1982, I worked with Pat and Peter Buckskin negotiating with the ALP to include the appointment of Aboriginal Education Teachers in their election platform. In 1994, I also worked with Pat Buckskin on the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Project, developing career structures for Aboriginal non-teaching school and preschool positions in schools nationally, pushing for smaller classes for teachers, SSOs and AEWs in Aboriginal & Anangu Schools.

I worked to improve the superannuation benefits for educators. As President of the South Australian Government Federation, I led Parliamentary negotiations amending legislation so that public sector employees are now able to access transition to retirement benefits.

I’M PROUD TO HAVE BUILT A CAREER FOCUSED ON BETTERING THE LIVES OF EDUCATORS AND STUDENTS, WORK THAT SITS AT THE CORE OF THE UNION MOVEMENT AND APPRECIATE THE OPPORTUNITIES THE UNION HAS GIVEN ME TO LEAD PRODUCTIVE LIFE IN RETIREMENT.

BILL HIGNETT

In 1974, when I was a younger teacher and part of an active group of AEU members, we established a school-level staff association as a branch of the South Australian Institute of Teachers (which later became the AEU). This provided our members with a forum and a vehicle to struggle for improvements in conditions, particularly class sizes, and to challenge the then inadequate leadership of both the school and the union.

Later, as a SAIT official, I was part of the effort to build the industrial and political strength to fight at the state level for improvements in educators’ salaries and working conditions, including conditions and compensation for country members, and in learning rights and conditions for students. Our strong and determined membership rallied and sacrificed income when necessary, applying continuous pressure on Liberal and Labor governments to achieve improvements and recognition of our rights.

When I later became a school principal, my AEU membership helped me to maintain a perspective on colleagues’ experiences at a classroom level.

MY MEMBERSHIP HELPED MAINTAIN BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING AND RESPECT, STRENGTHENING OUR COLLEGIALITY, SENSE OF UNITY AND COMMON PURPOSE, AND MUTUAL SUPPORT.

Leaders who are also union members have the in-built advantage of a sense of unity and collegiality with other staff, thus contributing to the successful development of the school. They can be the captaincoach of the team, rather than some divorced manager attempting to assert leadership from another plane. Union membership also provided me protection when I needed to oppose various government or departmental policies or edicts.

Union membership over a forty-year career was a privilege, protection, and a source of camaraderie and success.

DAVID TONKIN AEU LIFE MEMBER

Life Membership with the Australian Education Union was awarded to me in February 2020. Receiving this award before my union peers at the Annual Federal Conference was a great honour.

I have been a member of my local education union since the commencement of my teaching career in Queensland in 1974. My local activity as a member of the Queensland Teachers Union translated to that of the South Australian Institute of Teachers (SAIT) upon relocating to Adelaide in 1986.

As a contract and then a permanent teacher in Port Pirie, I became involved in pursuing of parity of salary and conditions for preschool teachers with their school counterparts. I was involved in local action, including stopwork rallies targeted at increasing levels of permanent employment for teachers in country areas.

It was this engagement that led me to seek employment with my union, initially as an Organiser with an Early Childhood focus, commencing in 1993. In 1996, SAIT became a Branch of the Australian Education Union, commencing a new era of national strength.

This led to involvement at the federal level, when I became a member of the AEU national Early Childhood Committee, later the chair, and finally the committee’s representative on the Federal Executive.

At the branch level, I took on the role of Lead Organiser supporting a team of campaign Officers. This was followed by my election to the position of Branch Vice President in 2014 and subsequently Branch President from 2016 to 2019.

It has been an honour to serve the members of our great union in a range of capacities during those years. I wear my Life Membership badge proudly.

IT IS A CONSTANT REMINDER OF WHAT CAN BE ACHIEVED WHEN WE UNITE TO ACHIEVE BETTER OUTCOMES FOR OURSELVES, OUR STUDENTS, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THIS COUNTRY. HOWARD SPREADBURY

AEU LIFE MEMBER

BEING A MEMBER OF MY UNION WAS FUNDAMENTAL IN SHAPING ME AS AN EDUCATOR, A FEMINIST, AND A LEADER.

From my first union meeting, I felt included in a collective of people who debated, challenged, took action, and made change. Union meetings were my support group as a new country teacher, and I still have lifelong friends and comrades from those early days as a union member. In 1980, at the age of 21, I was asked to speak at a rally when we went on strike for SSO job security. I regularly attended state council meetings in Adelaide where I heard from impressive and inspiring leaders who pulled us away from the old boys' club and created a modern, progressive union.

We welcomed our first Women’s Officer, started women’s networks and conferences, and were at the vanguard of girls' education and women’s advancement. These experiences shaped my politics and gave me hope that we could change the world. We broke down barriers and won job security and real careers for teachers, SSOs, and Aboriginal Education Workers.

It was the union, not the Department, that led curriculum change and gave a voice to those who worked to tackle inequality and it was the union that stood up against the attacks on public education. It was a privilege first to be a member, Sub-Branch Secretary and delegate, then to move into the role of Organiser, Executive Member, and later Vice President and President of my own union. Together, we fought for our rights as workers and the right of all to a high quality, free, secular public education. We sometimes lost, but we remained strong because the collective power in union gave us the power we didn’t have individually.

Being a life member of my union means being a small part of the movement toward a fairer, more equal world, where everyone can achieve their potential and build a better future for themselves, their community, and those they love.

JANET GILES AEU LIFE MEMBER

I became active in SAIT. As state governments changed, we won improvements, but we had to achieve federal funding for state schools. As SAIT Assistant General Secretary, I organised a national campaign with other Australian Teachers Federation (ATF) affiliates.

In 1973, the Whitlam government established the National School Commission (NSC). I was elected Assistant Federal Secretary of ATF. After the constitutional crisis of 1975, Malcolm Fraser planned to abolish the NSC. Teachers and parents across the nation held meetings and presented school-based demands. Parliament stopped while a delegation met the Prime Minister. We won that battle, and the NSC was maintained.

I also worked with the World Confederation in our region, notably with the Papua New Guinea Teachers’ Association as it became independent of the ATF.

ATF resolved to support amalgamation of the ‘white-collar’ organisations with the ACTU. I was one two ATF representatives in negotiations with Bob Hawke as ACTU President. The 1978 Conference in Adelaide voted for amalgamation. The newly constituted Australian Teachers' Union registered as a national union, then became the AEU. Its leaders went on to play prominent roles in the ACTU and in the international trade union movement.

Internationally, I initiated programs with developing countries. At the Melbourne World Assembly in 1988, I was elected Secretary General of the World Confederation. Following the fall of the Berlin wall, we overcame ideological cleavages to create Education International (EI) in January 1993. EI’s membership grew to reach 32 million in 178 countries. We created the Council of Global Unions. I chaired NGO Conferences at the United Nations, UNESCO and the OECD. With that background, I was glad to return to my home state last year to publish Dancing before storms: the story of five revolutions that made today’s world.

ROBERT HARRIS AEU LIFE MEMBER