#aeu

El primer punto es tan sutil como real. Con el encierro a 130 diputados el 15 de septiembre y el Paro Nacional del 20 de septiembre con decenas de miles de manifestantes –los cálculos van de 50 mil hasta 125 mil, según la PDH– los ciudadanos volvieron a advertir a los políticos que son un actor presente y que no se les olvidará esta afrenta. Desde las prohibiciones de venta de servicios y restaurantes hasta las próximas elecciones.

Part Two: Who Else Is Picking Up the Tab? In Part One of The Receipt, a bloke in a Collingwood jumper stood at the Ararat servo staring at a $255 diesel bill and uttered one word: “bastards!” We followed the money upstream: the war economy, the choked strait, the gas multinationals paying effective tax rates as low as 2-4% on the dollar from resources they don’t own. Today, the receipt gets…

And I am so frustrated by the reporting.

Yes, we are asking for a pay rise

- last agreement included minimal pay rise, in favour of working condition improvements, signed just BEFORE COVID hit, when inflation was 0%)

- we are paid significantly less than teachers in any other state

- our schools are badly underfunded and the state government has pushed back their commitment to fund the agreed $$ until 2031

- increasing cost of living is a current hot topic, for good reason

but we are also, emphatically, asking for improved working conditions.

- I am currently averaging ~19 hours a week unpaid overtime (I am still behind. This is not unusual.)

- support staff (admin, aides, technicians, maintenance) have an unpaid (and usually interrupted) lunch break

- administrative workloads continue to increase

- class sizes are increasingly preventing effective teaching, especially in primary classrooms

Yes, the government made an offer

- after 9 months of negotiating

- a week before the scheduled strike (voted on with 98% approval by a workforce that famously doesn’t like to strike)

- offering a pay rise for 2026, followed by 3% (less than projected cost of living rises) for the subsequent 4 years

- removing (laughable) time in lieu provisions in favour of unlimited overtime (you can now be required to eg attend meetings or events all weekend/evenings etc)

- potentially INCREASING student facing time (reducing time to complete all administrative and preparation tasks)

- adding an additional hour of meetings per week

No, the government did not offer an additional pupil free day in the year

- despite many news sites alleging this

- they offered to make one of the current days teacher directed (in practice, this would mean it was used for report writing, as that is many hours of work and otherwise not accounted for, because report writing days have previously been eliminated)

Yes, strikes will be disruptive, including to families.

- many teachers also have school aged children

- that’s the whole point of strikes

- teachers famously (and genuinely) don’t want to disrupt, disappoint or upset their students. I have 2 colleagues who aren’t striking today and instead are working 7:30am-11pm because they felt they could not let down a student.

- that’s the point of strikes.

Yes, parents who work from home with their child today will likely find it difficult to concentrate and be productive

- welcome to the fucking club.

- now imagine there’s 30 of them

Bonus points:

- government offer was made (and rejected by the union) over a week ago. Education minister emailed all teachers yesterday afternoon (first time) about the “good faith” offer made.

- most families blatantly support the teachers in this

- Victoria calls itself “the education state”

- We are the lowest paid teachers in the country. Significantly.