With the ever-increasing busyness at the start of the school year, all things yellow from the Hear our Voice campaign may seem like a distant memory.
But it wasn’t all that long ago that we were wearing our union t-shirts every Wednesday, plastering our laptops, noticeboards and chronicles with stickers and holding morning teas to progress our campaign.
The historic pay rises that support staff and teachers gained last October were obviously very welcome, especially considering our dedication throughout an extended campaign.
Now we are already four months into the new year and October doesn’t seem that far away – that’s when our enterprise agreement will be up for negotiation again.
During the few times I’ve heard Unions NSW Secretary Mark Morey speak, his narrative about campaigns and changing governments stays the same – we need to maintain the rage.
With our NSW Labor government celebrating its first year in power in March, there has never been a better time to up the pressure and push for the changes we need to address the crippling workloads experienced by both teachers and support staff alike.
We have a state government that appears serious about the pressures on teachers and the teacher shortage in government schools. But we also need our employers to recognise and address the same concerns in Catholic systemic schools.
So now is the time to start the conversation with your colleagues about what exactly we want to fight for in the next round of negotiations. Coordinator workloads? Administrivia? Taking staff goodwill for granted, leading to extra stress and long hours? What would be your top three priorities to achieve real change?
For me the conversation will be what it has always been: workload, workload, workload!