Stay strong. Stand up. Have a voice.

At rallies all over NSW and the ACT, members were not afraid to stand up and say what they believed.

At Tamworth, Raelene Maxworthy asked “how on earth would anything get sorted out, if two teams had to decide among themselves who was the legitimate winner? Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue”?

In Albury Simon Goss said “there are a lot of things happening at the moment. We want certainty. Catholic employers do not. We want fairness. Catholic employers do not. We want a fair, impartial guaranteed process. Catholic employers do not.

“Hope remains. I hope that we, the employees of the Catholic systemic schools across NSW, do not sacrifice our conditions so freely. I hope Catholic employers are not easily fooled into thinking themselves as benevolent employees through their current actions. I hope the words of Pope Francis echo in their ears.

“I am not stopping work today for me. I am here for the young contracted teachers, too scared to stop work for fear they might never receive a permanent job. I am here for the 50% of young teachers who will quit the profession in the first five years of entering their vocation.

“I am here because, if we allow our agreement to be voted in as it currently is, the agreement itself becomes a moot point. Our Work Practice Agreement, which no one has seen, will become enforceable, and the collateral of all of this will be those who are trying to teach the next generation that the world is good, and just, and fair.”

Vince Cooper reported from Aberdeen that St Joseph’s Aberdeen, St Mary’s Scone, St James Muswellbrook and St Catherine’s Singleton members “came together to protest as a united front, sending a clear message to our CSO Maitland/Newcastle and the CCER that we won’t be bullied into an EA that is not fair and just”.