12NOON
HUNTER Catholic school teachers and support staff striking over pay and conditions have taken their fight directly to their employer's front door, where they fervently demanded their voices be heard.
Independent Education Union of Australia NSW/ACT branch Newcastle organiser Therese Fitzgibbon said around 700 people from across the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle's 58 schools participated in Friday's industrial action. They wore yellow and waved placards at a rally in Wickham Park, before they marched to the Catholic Schools Office chanting and singing Hear Our Voice, a version of union anthem Solidarity Forever.
A group of staff members inside the building were seen watching and applauding their striking colleagues.
"Catholic employers and state government would love to say that we are being disruptive today and they have said that we are being disruptive today," Ms Fitzgibbon told the rally.
"But what they don't seem to be seeing is the fact that student learning is being disrupted every single day."
Ms Fitzgibbon said union representatives had not been able to physically visit schools during the past two years due to the pandemic, but had "hit our schools with gusto" this year.
"I have to say we were shocked, absolutely shocked by what we were hearing on a daily basis in schools."
The union is calling for a pay increase of between 10 and 15 per cent over two years; two more hours release from face-to-face teaching per week; a reduction in paperwork; an end to staff shortages and for support staff to be given pay parity immediately with public school colleagues.
