Australian teachers are taking the fight to union leaders

Tens of thousands of education workers took part in a 24-hour strike in March (Photo: aeuvic/Facebook)

A fight over education workers’ pay in Australia shows the power of organising at the base of trade unions. 

Education workers in the state of Victoria, Australia, recently voted to reject the Labor government’s proposed pay deal, in a member-led fightback against pay cuts, excessive workloads and their own union leadership. 

Australian Education Union (AEU) members voted “No” to the agreement despite their leadership arguing it was a great deal. 

Activists won the argument among the rank and file. The “Vote No” campaign was led by rank and file group Fight the Crisis.

The group circulated material on social media with a breakdown explaining how teachers would still face a real pay cut and gathered public pledges to vote no from union members at 132 schools across the state. 

Fight the Crisis activist Lucy Honan told Socialist Worker, “If you scratch the surface of the agreement, it is ultimately a pay cut. The agreement did nothing to restore our purchasing power to 2020 levels.

“There was also nothing to regulate class sizes that have ballooned and led to teacher burnout.

“Education support workers were offered even lower pay rises. There was a lack of paid lunch breaks and changes to their job description.” 

Teachers have seen their pay go backwards by 11 percent after inflation since their last agreement. Instead of the union’s demand for a 35 percent pay increase over three years to catch up, the government’s offer would still have left teachers earning less than in 2020 in real terms. 

Lucy told Socialist Worker that the “Vote No” campaign had been led by rank and file members who believe that they can win more.

“The leadership of the campaign has been people involved in Teachers and School Staff for Palestine. They brought the experience of using our working class power,” she said.

“The level of anger at the cost of living crisis meant that it wasn’t that hard to convince people that we have to fight for more.”

She explained that there has been “brutal” debate on the union’s council about voting for the agreement. 

While activists were isolated on the council, they looked to the base.

“We ran in the last union elections for executive positions but out of about 120, we won only ten branch council positions. So we’re definitely in the minority,” Lucy explained.

“But actually, our argument that the membership has a willingness to strike has proved to be right. And a majority rejecting the offer shows that the membership is far to the left of the council.”

Teachers’ confidence about what they could achieve had grown after an “electric” 24-hour strike at the end of March, with up to 30,000 marching in Melbourne.

But after that, the union leadership called off further action and argued to accept the offer from Jacinta Allan’s Labor government in Australia. 

“People are feeling a bit bitter at the leadership,” Lucy said. “The 24-hour strike was the first time in more than a decade that we’d all been out on the streets together. The membership was set for more strikes.”

She explained that the argument from the union leadership had been that they had to wrap up as the Victorian state election is coming up in November. It was argued that getting behind the Labor government was a way to block Australia’s far right from doing well in the elections.

But the far right party, One Nation, is feeding off the bitterness about Labor’s failure to address the cost of living crisis. 

“The idea that we couldn’t keep fighting doesn’t stand up,” she said. “We are not going to just lie down and give a free pass to Labor. And actually the way that we fight the far right is to fight the cost of living crisis. Winning pay rises for members is the way to show there is an alternative.”

“We are calling on members to pass motions at sub-branch meetings for a 24-hour strike on 4 August.”

“We are having an extraordinary council meeting on 17 July. The pressure that’s building will hopefully push the leadership to call a nationwide strike. 

“But our motion calls on regional AEU meetings to call the strike themselves even if the council meeting refuses to,” Lucy said.

“This is the time to be bold. The majority of people don’t agree with the leadership. This has never been done before in the history of our union. But we have the initiative to take matters into our own hands if they won’t support the rank and file. 

“The rank and file leaders that have emerged from this fight are rejecting the passivity of the leadership. We’re organising where our power lies—in our workplaces.”