Teachers’ strike: More than 150 Geraldton teachers protest pay, conditions in education system ‘on the brink’

More than 150 teachers from about a dozen schools joined the Statewide fight in Geraldton on Tuesday for better pay and conditions, striking for half a day and claiming they are “overworked, underfunded and over it”. Tuesday’s industrial action is set to escalate without a resolution, which could include a full-day strike. Thousands of teachers walked off the job for half a day on Tuesday, frustrated at the Cook Government’s refusal to increase their wages by 12 per cent over two years, and they backed a motion to take further action if no agreement was reached by May 10. The Government is offering 11 per cent over three years. The State School Teachers Union claimed 10,000 teachers joined the strike action across WA, including more than 2000 in regional cities and towns. Teachers from more than 11 schools in Geraldton, Mullewa and Northampton attended the protest and march in Geraldton — the first time in a decade WA teachers have gone on strike. The collective sentiment from educators at the Geraldton strike was they were demanding the “bare minimum”. Speaker and union representative Marie Klein said the system was on the brink of collapse with overfilled classrooms and staff on wages they were struggling to survive on. “I’ve thought — why don’t I just go drive a truck? Or become a checkout chick? I’d get to go home on time, or not think about the next day,” she said. Placards reading “better conditions = less divisions” and “we can’t put education first when you put teachers last” decorated the path as teachers chanting “overworked, underfunded and over it” and “what do we want? Share the surplus” marched from Maitland Park to Stow Gardens. “We are done with violence. We are done with a lack of system support. We’re done with being done,“ Kathryn Mannion said. Ms Mannion is a teacher with Meekatharra School of the Air and her speech to the crowd also painted the image of an education system at breaking point. “They (teachers) start feeling overworked, overwhelmed, utterly disillusioned. We have all acknowledged the problem. So what has the department done about it? Absolutely nothing,” she said. Educators raised the quantity of students in classes as one of the most pressing issues. They said they were unable to give adequate time and attention to big classes and were concerned about the quality of education they could provide. “Thirty two students in one class, 11 of them with different lesson plans — how are you supposed to do that, where do you find the time to do that?” a teacher who wished to remain anonymous said. “My children are lucky if they get five hours with me on the weekend.” Another anonymous teacher said the time school work took up after hours left her with no time to do her own errands. Ms Mannion, the daughter of two teachers, said she knew the workload would involve out of hours work but not to this extent. “Over the 20 years I have been teaching, the workload has continued to increase to the point where it is overwhelming. And it often requires a 70-hour week to do what is needed,” she said. Ms Mannion said though she loved her job, the past few years had seen her considering leaving the profession. Educators pointed to lessons that should be taught outside of school at home. “We are not there to teach the children to do all the things that parents used to teach their children,” Ms Mannion said. One educator said she had consistently been toilet-training her kindy students. Three Geraldton schools were impacted by the half-day strike. Champion Bay Senior High School and Geraldton Senior High School both closed during the strike, while special needs education facility Holland Street School partially closed. More than 80 schools in WA were closed or partially closed during the strike.