www.ieu.asn.au overview
Labour bites
Selfish to refuse a wage freeze Tasmania’s Treasurer is labeling unions “selfish” for deciding to walk off the job in an action that will inconvenience parents, school children and people on hospital waiting lists. Unions are flagging the biggest campaign of industrial action in years to protest against Treasurer Peter Gutwein’s budget savings measures which include a 12-month pay freeze in exchange for a non-binding promise not to cut an extra 300 jobs. Union leaders intend to ignore the Treasurer’s ultimatum. (Source: ABC)
though jobs tops the agenda and other centre-right leaders have met them. Unions from across the G20 are trying to get a commitment to improving working conditions and increasing wages included in the summit final communiqué. The 20 member countries, which account for nearly 86% of the world’s economy, are supposed to be considering targets set in the communiqué as part of their policy plans over the next year. Mr Cameron, however, joined King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto and President Joko Widodo of Indonesia in not talking to the unions either before, or during, the summit. By contrast, Chancellor Angela Merkel offered union leaders breakfast yesterday morning, to discuss their ideas, and President Vladimir Putin met the leaders in the afternoon. France, China, Brazil, and Argentina have also found time for the union representatives. (Source: The Independent)
Robbed of a dream The Sensory Impaired Program (SIP) which provides specialised teacher support for hearing and vision impaired students in primary and secondary Sydney Archdiocesan Catholic schools ends this term. Dr Michael Bezzina of Sydney CEO told 29 front line specialist teachers recently that the 30-year program would not continue “as we know it” beyond the end of the school year. In the lead up to Christmas the CEO is providing no gifts but in fact support is being taken away. The following letter from a SIP Teacher shows the human impact of this: “We have a student who is undergoing surgery any day now and may lose the sight in his remaining eye. He has tactile dysfunction and his main input will be through Braille. He loves technology. “His mum asked us if we could tell him about next year as she didn’t have the heart, given what’s going on. So we promised we would tell him today. “As I told him what was happening to the service the tears were rolling down his face. He said: “It’s OK Miss” and “I had a dream, Miss, and it has just been taken away. Why are they doing it”?
“When I said that the teachers will help him he just looked my direction and said: “What’s the point”? “At this point I went and dragged the Leader of Learning out of a meeting as I felt that they needed to see the depth of despair this student was in. “She arranged for the school counsellor to see him. This is my reality of our situation. I feel beaten. This is hard. . .” The IEU Council unanimously passed the following motion at the AGM on 18 October: “IEU Council rejects the Sydney CEO’s decision to remove specialist itinerant vision and hearing impairment teachers from its schools. This decision will adversely impact on the employment choices of the teachers concerned; the students and their parents, and their school communities.” The Bethlehem Ashfield Chapter passed a motion in support for the Sensory Impaired Program members during their stop work on November 10. In 2014 SIP vision and hearing teachers and assistants have worked with students, teachers, principals and families in 24 Sydney CEO schools. They will be missed.
Children benefit from trickle down effect RAAF wife slams government pay offer The wife of a serving RAAF member about to be deployed to Iraq has lashed the Federal Government’s “insulting and non-consultative” pay offer and cuts to allowances. An Adelaide based defence force wife whose husband is due to deploy to the Middle East next week and who will miss out on Christmas with his family, said she had chosen to speak out because: “Defence is not like the public service. Defence Force members can’t strike, they can’t speak out”. She told the media her husband would lose his Members with Dependents food allowance under the proposed pay offer, which is worth $4905 annually. At the same, her husband will receive a pay rise of just $1280 annually in line with the below inflation 1.5% offer – leaving her and her family $3625 worse off each year. She added that she had been “lectured” by a staffer when she rang the office of Assistant Defence Minister Stuart Robert about Labor’s legacy of debt before being told the Minister was “too busy to ring someone like me back”. (Source: Fairfax Media)
Who snubbed the Unions? The British Prime Minister David Cameron snubbed international trade unions at the G20 summit – even
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newsmonth - Vol 34 #8 2014
Ticket sellers out earn performers The Royal Opera House was at the centre of a pay storm recently after it was claimed that professional dancers were being paid just £9.14 an hour during rehearsals. In a website statement, since taken down, the Equity freelance dance network said dancers were being offered less than the £10.70 an hour that a box office sales assistant might get. (Source: The Guardian) This month in labour history • 1-11-1835 Philadelphia has the first general strike in US history. • 29-11-1849 Chartist leader William Cuffay arrives in Australia, having been transported from Britain after his treason trial. • 22-11-1900 2800 workers at the Penrhyn quarry in Wales, walk off the job over pay and union recognition. The strike last a staggering three years.
• 19-11-1915 Joe Hill, a Swedish American organiser for the Industrial Workers of the World, is framed and executed for murder in Utah. • 1-11-1923 Police in Melbourne strike against the use of labour spies.
Putting in place the means to help children develop successfully in early childhood “comes from the top down”, student Natalie Hanlon said. Natalie has just completed a onesemester internship with the IEU, and is close to completing her early childhood education degree at the University of Western Sydney. During her time with the IEU Natalie, 20, has explored ways in which the Union can communicate with the early childhood sector, and she has developed a poster, Facebook page and a series of leaflets about the Union in several languages, including Chinese and Japanese. Natalie has completed two placements at a long day care centre in Penrith, but for her
final internship she wanted to do something different and the IEU “looked interesting”. “The main thing I’ve learnt is that unions are really important in providing professional support which ultimately impacts on centres and the children in those centres,” Natalie said. “You need something that starts from the top and works its way down to the children.” Natalie said she has always wanted to work with young children since she was a young child herself, because “you can make a really big impact on their lives”. She is looking forward to “hands-on” involvement with children after graduation next year. Natalie is the third UWS student to do an internship with the IEU.