{"id":569272,"date":"2026-03-28T04:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569272\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T04:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T04:48:14","slug":"australia-more-victorian-teachers-and-supporters-call-for-better-wages-conditions-at-mass-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/569272\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia: More Victorian teachers and supporters call for better wages, conditions at mass strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Socialist Web Site is publishing more interviews gathered by members and supporters of the Committee for Public Education (CFPE) at the March 24 statewide strike of tens of thousands of Victorian public school educators.<\/p>\n

While rank-and-file teachers have shown their enthusiasm for a struggle to reverse decades of worsening conditions in public education, the Australian Education Union (AEU) bureaucracy is working behind closed doors with the state Labor government of Jacinta Allan to prepare another sellout agreement as it has done over decades.<\/p>\n

CFPE members explained that the struggle to defend public education amid a global assault on living and working conditions requires a fight against the Labor governments that are spearheading the agenda of war and austerity in Australia.<\/p>\n

Aphrodite<\/p>\n

Experienced primary school teacher Aphrodite is currently working in the performing arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was involved in strikes in 2013,\u201d she said. \u201cThe conditions in schools are terrible. We did so much heavy lifting along with all the health services during COVID, and this is how we got repaid. It\u2019s just appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governments are cutting and as we now know the government has withdrawn $2.4 billion that was due to go into the schools.\u2026 We\u2019ve got two less classes, so the class sizes have increased. Kids have so many problems these days.\u00a0 It’s really changed since COVID, but the complex problems were coming before COVID and we have no resources to deal with them,\u201d she told the CFPE.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey [the government] don\u2019t provide you with funding. You have to prove it to get payments and the bar to get needed resources keeps getting raised,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether it is Liberal or Labor in power we need to take care of public education. Education is vital as well as nurses and doctors. They\u2019re your soldiers on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started teaching, we had school nurses, we had support services, and now we don\u2019t have school nurses. If we do, it has to come out of the school budget,\u201d Aphrodite said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need more support services now, because the issues that children and adults are facing are new, serious and complex and so much of the time we have to help the parents. I work in a school that is dealing with students from overseas with very high needs\u2014refugees coming off the boat. We\u2019ve got a language school across the road and we have to deal with their trauma and all of those complex issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aphrodite denounced the 2022 AEU-government agreement which imposed a real wage cutting nominal 2 percent \u201cpay increase\u201d and no changes to worsening conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how the last agreement was passed, because it was appalling.\u201d Aphrodite said. \u201cMany thought that vote was very shady. I don\u2019t know what shady deals the union did with [the Labor government of Daniel] Andrews. That is what teachers were discussing and why many resigned from the union.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m retiring in about nine years\u2019 time. I can\u2019t afford to retire till I\u2019m 67 because I\u2019e got to get that superannuation up. All our wages are being eroded bit by bit,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo many families are leaving the government system because more money is being cut from government and going to private schools.\u00a0 The teachers are just as good in public schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah, centre<\/a><\/p>\n

Sarah, a secondary teacher from Melbourne\u2019s northern working-class suburb Craigieburn, said: \u201cThe strike was long overdue, it was so good to see such a big turnout. A lot of talk about the cost-of-living situation has been happening.\u2026 It demonstrates we are in a real economic crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teacher also denounced the 2022 AEU sellout agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t approve the last agreement. This time we are struggling under increasing workload. There are new curriculum demands, forms that must be completed, more meetings. There is a lot of violence in schools and teachers and educators are exhausted. We\u2019re asked to put up with this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that 2022 agreement when they were trying to pass the deal and inflation was going to increase. You could see that it was not going to be a good outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went to union meetings, I was always being muted. I was asking for the same things that we are asking for now. I quit the union for two years as I thought they didn\u2019t have my back. I have returned because I want to be involved in the strike action now and in the discussions. We are seeing some movement now although I still don’t fully trust the AEU.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about pay but also work conditions. What the government offered was a slap in the face. I wouldn\u2019t accept the conditions even if you offered me a 50 percent pay rise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sarah denounced the agenda of austerity and war being pursued by governments internationally, including the illegal US-Israeli war on Iran in which the Australian Labor government is fully complicit.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoney goes to the military and prisons everywhere except on education. They invest in business and wars and lives are destroyed and affected here as well,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are 90 million people in Iran and Trump has threatened everyone. The destruction of the waterways and social infrastructure shows that he was lying when he said he was trying to improve Iranian lives and remove a repressive government. We know he is there just to attack. As soon as the war was announced our prime minister was one of the first people to back the US. We seem to be in the back pocket of the US; it is not something that people want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max, a secondary teacher from Broadmeadows also in Melbourne\u2019s north, said: \u201cI thought it was a really good turnout. The numbers today show people have had enough. They want a fair deal and that means a significant increase in pay as well as maintaining their conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone was upset with what the government offered,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope the union leaders\u2026 don\u2019t come back and say as they did last time, that this was the best they could do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think since 2022 the number of people here is surprising. So many educators were upset with that deal, and it is miraculous that so many came despite that. Many quit the union in frustration but came back to take strike action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 2022 deal was terrible. After the in-principle agreement, the writing was on the wall, and you could see what was going to happen as most teachers did.\u2026 During that struggle there were a lot of shady things going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max also denounced war and militarism.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe US has begun an illegal and evil war against Iran. It is carrying out horrors on the population there. And here we are trying just to make ends meet. The Labor government is not at all dissociating from this crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dylan, a young teacher in Melbourne\u2019s inner suburbs, has been teaching for five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember in 2022 I was only just starting and I wasn\u2019t really aware of the pain and the conditions and the workloads,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then you realise there is a lot to do. Teachers talk about workload and trying to reduce all the added elements that aren\u2019t teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing among the lowest funded schools in the country under Labor it is surprising. I suppose they have just been able get away with it,\u201d Dylan said. \u201cThat\u2019s because the union didn\u2019t really do their job last time.\u2026 I feel like people are critical of the union, but I don\u2019t know if they\u2019re critical as much as they probably should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe union speeches at the rally today were repeating the same things over and over again. They absolutely could have been more critical of how the government, previous governments, have gotten it to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot to fix in public schools. Class sizes is one of them. Also fully investing in educational support staff, because they get paid a pittance,\u201d Dylan added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a kid with special needs you have to have that kid on an individual learning plan,\u201d Dylan explained. \u201cYou can have 10 kids in a class that might be diagnosed with ADHD, ASD. They might have intellectual development issues, hearing impairments, maybe they\u2019re also Indigenous\u2014they also have to have an individual learning plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very tricky when you have to write one of those and then be faithful to it when you have 25 kids in a class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Striking educators were joined by parents and students, as well as winning support from passersby who stopped to film, applaud and cheer on the March 24 rally.<\/p>\n

Alex, left, with schoolmates<\/p>\n

CFPE members spoke with Alex, a year 10 student who joined the strike with his schoolmates\u2014taking an hour-long train trip with their bikes from the outer southeastern Melbourne suburb Cranbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came to the demonstration because we wanted to support all our fantastic teachers and our principal at our school,\u201d Alex said. \u201cMe and my friends are here to show our support.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTeachers needs better conditions and pay. Because the pay is so low we don\u2019t have enough teachers at our school. There are about 2,000 kids at our school\u2026 but we don\u2019t have enough teachers. We are short staffed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey find money for all sorts of stuff, war, all this stuff that is not necessary, but we need money for education for a future. Already we are running out of fuel, it is going to affect food, everything\u2014I don\u2019t agree with what is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the WSWS Educators Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive news and information on the fight against layoffs and budget cuts, and for the right to free, high-quality public education for all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Socialist Web Site is publishing more interviews gathered by members and supporters of the Committee for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-569272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}