Baillieu in sights of TAFE rally
UNIONISTS are planning a hostile reception for Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu with a rally against TAFE cuts at the Mercure on Friday.
Mr Baillieu will be speaking at a VECCI conference at the venue, and the rally, organised by TAFE4ALL and supported by 14 unions, will start at noon.
Geelong Trades Hall secretary Tim Gooden said police had been notified and Myers St, between Gheringhap and Moorabool streets, would be closed from noon until about 1pm.
Mr Gooden said the history of The Gordon showed that employers wanted a skilled labour force in Geelong.
‘‘They put money into it and they got the state to put money in and they got the state to run it and that’s what is needed in our society,’’ he said.
‘‘All these courses are not filled by universities, they will never be filled by private sector because the private sector will only pick up the high-demand, easy-volume stuff where the money is.
‘‘And they won’t run libraries, support services, counselling — the private sector will never run that and that funding has gone from TAFE.’’
Victorian state schools could face strike action well into next year, with teachers vowing to fight the Government over wages for ‘‘as long as it takes’’.
About 1200 teachers and school staff rallied outside Mr Baillieu’s electorate office yesterday, as the first in a series of half- day strikes hit schools in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.
Union leaders and government representatives are due to meet tomorrow, but the Australian Education Union’s outgoing state president, Mary Bluett, warned the parties were a long way from compromise.
‘‘The (weekly) meetings have been cordial, and there has been some progress, but we are still a long way off on the key issues of pay, contracts and workload, so we’ve got a lot of work to do,’’ she said.
The Shepparton office of Housing Minister Wendy Lovell is the target of today’s teacher rally, when half-day strikes are planned at schools in the region, followed by campaigns around Horsham tomorrow and Sunshine on Friday.