Teachers discuss industrial action for refugee rights

Staff at a school in Brisbane are planning the next steps in their campaign to free a student from the Darwin detention centre, in which she has been held since August.

Teachers, teacher aides, students and the school community of Yeronga State High School have organised a number of protests in support of Mojgan Shamsalipoor. Their actions have produced little response from the federal government. Industrial action is now being considered to secure her return.

Mojgan was three months away from completing her year 12 certificate when she was spirited away from Brisbane Immigration Transit Accommodation (BITA) and placed in the Wickham Point detention centre, 3,500 kilometres away.

Jessica Walker, a workplace representative for the Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) and teacher at Yeronga State High School, spoke to Red Flag about the campaign to free Mojgan.

“All through the year we were concerned that at any time she could be taken and transferred … On 7 August, a Friday, Mojgan was due to come to school [but] they weren’t letting anybody go to school that morning. She was in her uniform ready to go and the kids from other schools were ready to go.”

Mojgan hid somewhere in the compound. Other detainees in BITA have reported that five guards came looking for her. When they found her, Jessica says, Mojgan was “pulled out from wherever she was hiding, her head wrenched back with her hair pulled back and her arms in a lock” as she was dragged off.

Mojgan wasn’t the only student removed that day. Four others, one in primary school, were also taken, along with 15 adults. It remains unclear why. Mojgan’s immigration case worker had been pressuring her all year to return to Iran, from where she had fled.

Back at Yeronga SHS, Jessica and other staff moved into action. “We gathered as staff and QTU reps and had a quick meeting and said, ‘What are we going to do about this? This is not good enough. This can’t be happening, we’ve got to do something to try and fix this’.

“Initially we were just really upset, and then we were trying to think about what we could do. That afternoon … we heard from another member of staff that there was a rally that Saturday. Social workers, counsellors and psychologists had been planning this protest against the Border Force Act, so we decided to jump in on that. And from then we’ve been rallying and campaigning ever since.”

The first demonstration called by Yeronga SHS and the QTU took place a week later. “The most successful events have been the most visible ones”, Jessica says, describing the various protests they have staged. Despite their determination, the immigration minister has not shifted. “We’ve been doing these rallies, going to markets to get petitions signed, we have the community Facebook page, but it just feels like there is a lull, and the government in particular is not listening.

“We’ve always talked about industrial action; in the very beginning we considered it as an option, but we wanted to try to do rallies first … We feel taking industrial action is quite serious. It’s not about pay; it’s not about working conditions; it’s about human rights. And that’s a significant thing.”

Under current industrial laws, strike action outside enterprise agreement negotiations isn’t “protected”. Taking industrial action about refugee rights could means fines being levelled against the union or individuals.

However, Jessica says that teachers have been inspired by the doctors and health care workers’ public defiance of the Border Force Act. Their collective stance has made it much harder for individuals to be victimised.

“Hearing about the doctors and medical professionals has gotten a lot of other QTU members on board”, she says. “They might have been thinking ‘I don’t know if that’s something we should do or can do’. But now they’ve seen that, it’s pushed them into a certain direction, thinking, ‘If they’ve done that and it’s made such a big impact, then we should do that too’.”

Teachers for Refugees and Asylum Seekers is a new group that has been jointly set up by the QTU and the Independent Education Union. Its first meeting, on 27 October, attracted more than 40 teaching staff. Members are considering what actions can be taken in solidarity with the Yeronga SHS staff as part of the campaign to free Mojgan.

“The QTU has been incredibly supportive”, Jessica said. “From the very beginning, they’ve given us advice about the best way of going forward, they’ve provided resources … organised speakers at rallies, they’ve emailed things out to members.”

Explaining why refugee rights are a union issue, Jessica says it goes to the core of what unions should be about. “The current policies [of the government] are not caring and compassionate – they hurt people, they hurt young people who have done nothing wrong, and that’s the message we really want people to understand.

“This is a human rights issue, and if you go down to the very base of why the QTU is there, it’s there to support the rights of teachers and students and the welfare and well-being of teachers and students.”

Yeronga SHS staff are expected to announce soon their decision on taking industrial action as part of their campaign.

[Support the Free Mojgan campaign.]