Now teachers vow to strike over housing
03.04.2008
THE state of teacher accommodation is so bad in Queensland that security doors had been fitted to houses so damaged by termites that burglars needed only to kick in the walls.
Queensland teachers in remote areas have followed the state's nurses in issuing an ultimatum to the Labor Government to fix their housing or they will go on strike.
The Queensland Teachers Union yesterday announced that more than 600 of its members would vote on taking industrial action over the ``dangerous neglect'' of their accommodation in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The Australian revealed last month that a nurse on Mabuiag Island in Torres Strait had been raped after Queensland Health had ignored her requests to fix her hopelessly insecure quarters.
Nurses on the islands walked off the job last weekend, but agreed last night to return to work from today after a meeting of the Queensland Nurses Union and Queensland Health in a Queensland Industrial Relations Commission hearing on Thursday Island. QNU secretary Gay Hawksworth said members had agreed to return to work under special conditions.
``The reason that they are going back is that agreement was reached today that there would be a two-week trial of two persons on call, so that safeguards their security,'' she said.
Teachers union president Steve Ryan said yesterday that for the past nine years the Government had been told of the problems in housing, but nothing had been done. He said an estimated $50 million would have to be provided in the forthcoming state budget to address the maintenance backlog.
``Housing in many of these communities is more than 30 years old and a combination of extreme climatic conditions and years of neglect have left much of the government-supplied accommodation -- the only housing available to teachers -- in extremely poor condition,'' he said.
``The union has heard from our members of security screens being fitted to doors but the surrounding walls have been so weakened by termite infestation that the walls have simply been kicked in and intruders have ransacked the personal property of teachers and their families.''
Mr Ryan said that when the next school term began on April 14, teachers from about 100 schools in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York and the Torres Strait were expected to vote to take industrial action.
Education Minister Rod Welford accused teachers of ``being opportunistic'' by following the industrial example of nurses, but said he would address accommodation upgrade needs.
