More than 40 members made up of a contingent from both schools gathered at St Leonard’s Park in North Sydney during the 8.30-9.30am stop work.
Marist IEU Rep John Bullivant said he comes from a traditional union background and his understanding of a stop work is to actually walk off the job.
“At 8.30 we started heading out across the street. There was a belief that there was some symbolism in actually walking off the job. Some informative emails had been sent to staff but there had been little discussion, so when we saw we had the majority of our members gathered in the park, it was a terrific show,” John said.
“Some of the boys were just arriving at school as we were walking through the playground, and they would have seen us gathering in the park, sending a strong message.”
John said the group felt the stop work was necessary.
“This is a group that’s very loyal to the school, some have worked there for a long time. Many of the staff give up some weekends to stage the school musical.
“But they also feel very insulted by the offer the Catholic employers have made and obviously feel strongly enough to take action.
“We are democratic in our Chapter. People make up their own minds, so seeing them walking across to the park was great.’’
Marist Administrator for the Director of Teaching and Learning Joyce Kelly joined the group for her first taste of industrial action.
Relatively new to the Union, Joyce felt she wanted to show solidary with the rest of the staff.
“As a support staff member being told that the CEO thought we were being paid too much made me feel like we were not valued.
“With teachers we work towards the same goal of keeping the school going as well as possible and we should be valued.”
Joyce said meeting IEU Organiser Ann-Maree McEwan in the park was an eye opener.
John and Joyce both said they would be prepared to keep up the fight indefinitely.