Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Australian Education Union NT branch secretary Adam Lampe says hundreds of teachers have gone on strike, pushing for a pay rise

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Australian Education Union NT branch secretary Adam Lampe says hundreds of teachers have gone on strike, pushing for a pay rise · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Kisy Epirics just sent me a couple of photos as
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the teachers strike in per rap this morning, and it
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: looks as though there are hundreds of teachers there now.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Adam Lampei, the head of the Northern Territory Education Union
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: or Teachers Union, i should say, joins me on the
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  Speaker 1: line right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Adamkati.
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  Speaker 1: Adam, I understand that there are hundreds of teachers there
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: perhaps this morning.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've got close to three hundred I think, and
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  Speaker 3: it's not We're still ten minutes to go before we start. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: it's a big turnout, Yes, turn out.
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  Speaker 2: It certainly looks that way.
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  Speaker 1: I've been sent through a couple of photos this morning,
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  Speaker 1: and it certainly looks that way.
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  Speaker 2: Mate. What is the message for the government this morning?
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  Speaker 3: The teachers need actual pay rises, no bonuses. Bonuses are
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  Speaker 3: not going to keep teachers in the territory and they're
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: not going to recruit teachers of the territory. There needs
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: to be a recognition of the untenable workloads that teachers
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: are facing to the teacher shortage, and the government needs
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  Speaker 3: to do something to mitigate it.
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  Speaker 1: Adam, what are teachers saying to you as that strike
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  Speaker 1: is about to get underway. You said it's about ten
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: minutes from getting sort of right underway.
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  Speaker 2: What are they saying to you this morning?
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  Speaker 3: Want we want to pay rise, We don't want a bonus,
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  Speaker 3: and we want you to address workloads. And we've got
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  Speaker 3: a whole bunch of other things I want to talk about,
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  Speaker 3: you know, around affective and rhym and cloal budgets which
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: are sort of technical teacher specific things. But yeah, they're
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  Speaker 3: just they're struggling, they want to get out of survival
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  Speaker 3: mode and they want to give the best for terrify kids.
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  Speaker 1: Adam, have you had any words this morning as to
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  Speaker 1: whether the government's going to send a representative down there
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  Speaker 1: to speak with the teachers that are striking.
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  Speaker 3: No, I don't think they. Well, we've invited the three
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  Speaker 3: the candidates from the three mate parties, Labor, SEP and
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the Greens. The Greens will we hear Selp, of course,
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  Speaker 3: but we haven't earn anything back from Labor and not
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  Speaker 3: expecting just to see him. So that's that's where we're
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  Speaker 3: at with anything to do with government now.
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  Speaker 1: I would imagine that over the years, there probably has
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  Speaker 1: been different reasons why teachers have gone on strike. Have
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  Speaker 1: you ever seen such a big turnout for a strike
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  Speaker 1: like you are this morning?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, Catie, I've been around a long time. Yeah, I've
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  Speaker 3: seen some press. I've been involved his pretty dirty disputes
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  Speaker 3: in the day here in the Northern Territory. Look, this
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: one's this one's about teachers being angry about being thrown
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  Speaker 3: under the bus with COVID. There's a bit of residual
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: anger there not being properly appreciated, struggling with the current
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: workloads due to the teacher shortage, and of course the
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: cost of living pressures there. We're all facing at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Adam, have you got any parents. They're in support
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  Speaker 1: of our teachers.
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  Speaker 3: So Tarry Foch is the president of COGXO, which is
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  Speaker 3: the parent organization. She will be here and she's given
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  Speaker 3: her full support of her organization. Parents are right behind us.
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  Speaker 3: Usually when we take a strike, we do get a
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  Speaker 3: few parents, angry parents saying, you know, I've got to
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  Speaker 3: change my routine and look after the kids. But we're
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  Speaker 3: not getting that this time around. Yeah, we're getting a
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  Speaker 3: lot of parental support at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got to say I certainly haven't received messages
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  Speaker 1: from parents angry towards our teachers or anything. But the
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  Speaker 1: thing that I think is really worth pointing out is
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  Speaker 1: that the schools, the teachers, the support staff, and those
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  Speaker 1: that are still back at the school, everyone's strived their
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  Speaker 1: best to make sure that even though normal classes aren't
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  Speaker 1: being conducted today, they've tried their best.
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  Speaker 2: To make sure that this has minimal impact.
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  Speaker 3: On Oh yeah, that's that's that's what they do. That's
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  Speaker 3: what teachers do. They you know, they don't want to
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  Speaker 3: be here on strike. They want to be in class,
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  Speaker 3: teach their kids, and they understand the consequences of it,
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  Speaker 3: but you know that the pair end or support. You know.
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  Speaker 3: One of the one of the things about COVID, I
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  Speaker 3: think is that it gave parents an appreciation of what
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  Speaker 3: actually teachers have to do because they had to you know,
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  Speaker 3: home school for a period of time. So yeah, it's
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  Speaker 3: we've we've got the community behind us at the moments,
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  Speaker 3: and hopefully that's going to be enough to bring the
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  Speaker 3: government back to the table and they could give us
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  Speaker 3: a decent offer.
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  Speaker 1: Adam, has there been any movement from the government this
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  Speaker 1: week since we last.
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  Speaker 3: Spoke, Yes, they've been informal conversation. They did ask us
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  Speaker 3: what would it what would it take not to strike today?
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  Speaker 3: And we said, well, if you can give us an
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  Speaker 3: offer by wednesday. But of course they've left it too
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  Speaker 3: because they've got to go through processes, cabinet processes and
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  Speaker 3: treasury and all the rest of it. So unfortunately, while
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  Speaker 3: we believe I'll probably have something on the table next week,
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  Speaker 3: it's too late for us to to stop the strike.
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  Speaker 1: Do you believe that the offer that they're going to
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  Speaker 1: put on the table next week is going to be enough?
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  Speaker 3: I'm hopeful, Cadine. Do I believe? Do I believe? I
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  Speaker 3: don't know what do I believe? Yeah? I can't. I
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  Speaker 3: can't say I do or date. It's I just hope
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  Speaker 3: that they do, because it's going to get very messy
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  Speaker 3: if they don't.
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  Speaker 1: If they don't, can parents expect rolling strikes or further
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  Speaker 1: strike action?
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  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I've already notified the Commissioner of Public Employment
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  Speaker 3: that we'll be encouraging members to work to rule starting
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  Speaker 3: next Friday. I'll be giving out communications to members explaining
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  Speaker 3: what exactly that means. A lot of sub branches are
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  Speaker 3: doing that anyway. That's just working your hours and then
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: putting tools down and leave leaving which teachers don't do normally.
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  Speaker 3: And there's there's a there's a full day action with
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  Speaker 3: some of the other unions on the first September, and
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  Speaker 3: if we're still in dispute, there's a good chance we'll
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  Speaker 3: take a full day strike on that day.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, I really hope that they do get
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  Speaker 1: to the table and and have a discussion with our teachers.
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  Speaker 1: I think the thing that you know that struck a
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  Speaker 1: lot of our listeners earlier in the week is the
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  Speaker 1: fact that the teachers didn't get that bonus. You know,
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  Speaker 1: you've been in these negotiations for some time. You have
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  Speaker 1: tried to be fair about this, and today is the
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  Speaker 1: first time that there has been this industrial action by
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  Speaker 1: way of strike. But you know, I think the government
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  Speaker 1: needs to understand that that parents don't want to see
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  Speaker 1: teachers continuing to go on on rolling strikes. So we've
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  Speaker 1: got to try and work something out here.
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  Speaker 3: Now. Are the reason teachers are striking today, Katie is there,
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  Speaker 3: backed into the corner, We're back into the corner. We
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  Speaker 3: can do nothing else.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, Adam LAMPI, I really appreciate your time this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I know you've got about two minutes before things get underway. Please,
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  Speaker 1: if you get the opportunity, give us a bit of
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  Speaker 1: an update at some point throughout the morning, let us
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  Speaker 1: know how many you get there, and yeah, let us
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  Speaker 1: know once you hear from the government.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks mate, we appreciate it.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: Yeer, thank you.