Fighting for workers’ and prisoners’ rights in NSW
Teachers in NSW prisons are protesting against moves to replace them with less qualified, private training providers.
“They’re keeping 20 teachers in four particular jails; they’re keeping some senior education officers and education officers, but they’re downgrading the position to clerks. They’re deleting all the positions – then they’ll just have everyone scrambling for the same positions”, Stewart Burkitt, education officer at Long Bay Jail and president of the Corrective Services Teachers Association, told Red Flag.
The NSW corrective services minister, David Elliott, is cutting education at 31 prisons across the state. Currently there are 152.5 full time equivalent teaching positions. When he’s done, there will be only 20. Where Burkitt works, at Long Bay, 25 teaching positions will be slashed.
Staff are outraged not only about job cuts, but about the attack on the rights of their students.
“Education is a human right … [But] there’s no right to education in our prison system, only the right to libraries. Education is at the governor’s pleasure’ – that’s actually a quote on the books somewhere”, Burkitt said.
“About 67 percent of students are below level two, which is about what the level of functional literacy is. So it’s a huge task. And people often have learning disabilities, higher levels of mental illness and addiction histories. Those people who need skilled, qualified teachers are getting unqualified, inexperienced people.
“Nobody will need a teaching qualification anymore to teach in NSW”, he said.
The cuts are part of a broader agenda to attack the conditions of public sector workers, which are better than those in the private sector.
“They’re going to tender it out to private providers. We’re assuming it’s going to be one of these crappy little training providers … They’re not going to save any money out of it; it’s just part of their ideology to privatise everything, to bash public sector workers. They’ll come and get you next”, he said.
Workers are determined to fight back: protest actions are taking place at prisons around the state.
“Out of about 150-160 people total, about 130 are union members. A few of them, of course, are scared to put their heads up. Bathurst yesterday was brilliant; we were at Silverwater the day before and we got something on ABC news. We’ve had one every day this week – one at Emu Plains and today at Wellington.
“We had a big one at Long Bay a couple of weeks ago. Loads of people. Lots of support from individual school teachers attending our actions.
“Morale is actually pretty good. We can see stuff happening. If we can get the story out, we’ll win. When people have got a bit, and feel like that they can do it, they will.
“I’m pretty sure they just thought we’d all roll over and die. We’ve had some really good support from the Teachers Federation”, he said.
