Dear Mary Bluett (Joanne Lockwood)

Dear Mary,

As a teacher of five years experience I feel it is about time MY union heard about MY concerns and not just of those in their first year of teaching or those Leading Teachers heading towards the end of their careers. It seems the Union has forgotten teachers like me exist, we certainly have not been considered in the latest agreement!

I had the opportunity, this afternoon, to listen to Meredith Peace discussing the terms of the latest agreement, all of which I had read and understood from the information provided on the Union’s website. Disappointingly, I was not given the chance – in the ½ hour session – to ask the questions that were concerning me, as an A1 teacher. Granted this was not solely her fault – the few questions that were heard were related to leading teacher changes – but I did not need to hear information that was readily available. This session should have primarily been a chance for members to ask questions and voice concerns, an opportunity it seems that the Union has gone out of its way to suppress.

I have been a union member since my first day as a Victorian Government school teacher and have always recognised the need and importance of unions within our profession. However, I feel betrayed and ignored by the current Union executive; my fees would have been better placed in my bank account than into employing the individuals who have negotiated this new agreement!

I have a number of specific questions and criticisms that I hope the Union will address:

1) Why did the AUE Victoria allow the government and the media to firstly release details of the agreement before members were told and more importantly, why did the union sit back and allow the media to continuously claim that we will now be the highest paid teachers in the country?
I was appalled when we were finally given specific details – several weeks after the in principle agreement was made – only to find that it is just 1st year teachers and those at the top of the scale who would in fact be better paid than teachers in NSW. For the rest of us somewhere in the 11 years in between the bottom and the top, we will be paid less, up to $13,000 less!
I was also increasingly angered over the lack of communication with members and the misleading information that was eventually provided (e.g. claiming that I would be given a 25.54% pay rise, which is clearly not the case in reality). It seems quite convenient that no details were released until after the NAPLAN testing was underway (and even then it was limited and unclear).

2) Why has the Union failed to clearly state the situation for teachers in the middle (G3-E3a)? Could it be that this lack of information is because this agreement does absolutely nothing for the teachers in this bracket? There seems to be absolutely no incentive for teachers in my position to continue, long term, in the profession. Considering we are starting to face a teacher shortage crisis and that there are fewer and fewer experienced teachers around to take on leadership positions, this lack of focus on the middle band seems counter-productive.
3) What has the Union done to address the workloads of teachers which have increased steadily over the years? I attended all the stop work rallies this year and last year, proudly carrying my AEU sign “Overworked and Underpaid” – I still seem to be in this position and will be until at least 2012!! And that’s saying nothing about class sizes, which have yet again been left off the agenda.

4) Lastly, regardless of how the Union chooses to spin the facts of this agreement, it is a 4 year, not a 3 year agreement. This locks members out of negotiations for salary and conditions until 2012 and allows us to, once again, lag significantly behind the rest of the country. Secondary to this, considering the average age of teachers in this state, many current teachers will have retired, leaving those who have been most disadvantaged by this agreement (and who choose to stay in teaching despite this), to fill the gaps.

Having been to the stop work meetings and listened carefully to the speakers and the other teachers I know, it was clear that in this negotiations we, the members, did not want our union to cave into a second rate agreement, as has happened in the past. We did not want to compromise on our goals. And yet here we find ourselves in the same position. If we ratify this agreement we may as well have taken the government’s initial 3.25% offer in January!

It is time for a change in direction from the Union and a change in those running it.

Yours Sincerely

Joanne Lockwood (Clyne) Viewbank College