Stick Together

This is part one of a series exploring the Australian education system as we hear from educators and others from across the country, in this episode we chat to Ben who has been a teacher in both Victoria and Western Australia about some of the challenges for teachers.

Today we are going to hear from Virginia Eubanks from the University of Albany in America as she talks about her book: Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor. It has particular interest in Australia because of the Federal Governments love affair with similar systems as it pushes to automate our social security system.

In today's episode we chat with Daniel Randall, Union member and transport worker on the Public Transport system in London. I met Daniel during discussions about public tranport's role in the climate emergency at the COP26 People's Summit. I learnt the most extraordinary thing: the London rail system relies on tickets sales because the government does not see it as an essential service. Is this the future?

Unlike teachers, whom at the very least receive a lip-service of support for their critical work, education support workers (ES) are chronically undervalued and unrecognised. As the Victorian Branch of the Australian Education Union fights for a new industrial agreement we speak with an ES staff member and unionist with experience in both the public and private sectors.

Today we continue the discussion around the rise of casualization which is destroying Australian society.We go to a NTEU rally that was held outside a mansion bought by Melbourne University for their Vice Chancellor to live in at the cost of $7.1 million dollars while the University persists in paying academics at casual rates on insecure contracts with the depressing move to cut the rates of pay of phd graduates and pay outs for wage theft. An interesting element at the rally was the inclusion of speakers from the blue collar union the United Workers Union fresh from a victory at Toll kmart Warehouses who were facing the same issues of insecure work and below inflation wage increases and conditions cuts - a situation which in real terms equals a pay cut at the same time that the employers have received win fall profits coming out of the pandemic.

Today we hear from a worker at RMIT who has been part of a long running campaign to win back over $10 million in unpaid wages to RMIT staff. The NTEU has been working with mostly casual staff to reach a settlement with the university of years of unpaid wages.

Today we hear  about the successful strike action taken by Country Road Warehouse workers for wage parity and job security earlier this month. We follow with a look at the star of the South Wind Farm project which is endorsed by both the ETU and the MUA.

Today we speak with a different type of worker. No one pays Emma or anyone else from Blockade Australia for the work they've put in to shut down the world's largest coal port in Newcastle Australia. We spoke to her about the action, which ran from the 8th-18 November, and it's importance to workers across the country. Plus, of course, some union news.

Today we hear about a decision from the Fair Work Commission which may pave the way for fair wages in the agricultural industry.