Striking teachers take to city streets
Hundreds of public school teachers have rallied outside the Education Department on Flinders Street before marching to Parliament during their second strike for improved pay and conditions.
Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
The teachers flooded onto the street outside the department’s headquarters, before heading north to Parliament House.
Speaking to InDaily at the rally, Australian Education Union (AEU) South Australian branch president Andrew Gohl said teachers were “really angry” about the latest offer from the state government.
“They feel it’s contemptuous of them; they don’t feel valued as a result,” he said.
“Not just in terms of salary, but also not valued in terms of the work that they do and the work overload that they’re experiencing and the impact that’s having on their personal and family lives.
“Something has to give; you can’t keep expecting the goodwill of South Australian educators to keep the system going without recognising that that goodwill is actually worth millions upon millions of dollars to the government and it’s unrecognised – there’s no thanks for it.”
Photo: Tony Lewis/InDaily
Gohl said his message to Premier Peter Malinauskas was that there “needs to be a dramatic improvement, a real change and an increase in salaries”.
“This offer actually takes them backwards compared to the second offer and there’s gotta be immediate workload relief,” he said.
On Monday, the union rejected an offer worth about $1.4 billion from the state government with Gohl labelling it “essentially the same, if not worse, than the last”.
The strike is the second in the pay dispute, with Gohl declaring at a September 1 strike rally that the union would be a “pain in the butt” for the Premier.
After the union announced today’s strike on Monday, the Premier and Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said they would not make any improved offer as there was “no point” while the AEU did not continue negotiating.
Today’s strike has closed more than 170 public schools and preschools, forcing parents across the state to find alternate arrangements for their children.
The state government vowed that Year 12 exams would proceed as scheduled even at schools which closed, with more than 1000 students scheduled to sit accounting and physics exams today.
