| SSTUWA Executive: Janet Stacey |
 Once again I am standing on the Members First ticket because I believe we have provided members with strong, honest and accountable decision making. I believe that members can feel confident that we have their best interests at heart and that we are speaking as a union, not as the mouth piece of the Education Department. Members First have successfully negotiated the best pay deal for teachers without trade-offs in a very long while. As a member of that negotiating team I felt privileged to represent members’ interests.I have been a school teacher for over 25 years. I graduated as a mature age student in 1984 and began my teaching career as a temporary teacher in metropolitan and close country schools. I have been a permanent teacher for approximately 23 years working as a class room teacher. During that time I have taught students from pre-primary to year 10, both in Primary schools and District High schools. I have been a union member for the duration of my working life and have always been active in the union movement. I continue to strongly promote and demonstrate the aims and ideals of good unionism. At my previous school I was the Union Rep for 12 years, and at various other times, Occupational Health and Safety Rep. I have also been a delegate to District Council and State Conference on a number of occasions. I am known as a strong advocate for teachers at the work place because I ensure that they receive accurate advice and information and effective support. As a current member of Executive I am also a member of the SSTU Appointments Committee, SSTU Emergency Committee, Organisers Agreement Committee, State Council Delegate, key member of the SSTU Negotiating Team and the AEU Delegate to Sydney 2008 and Melbourne 2009. As a member of Executive I take every opportunity to raise current issues and concerns that members have brought to my attention as a concern at the workplace. I believe that my role as an executive member is to support our members by continuing to lobby and demand safer workplaces where teachers are entitled to teach their students in a safe environment. We must make very clear to the Education Department that violent and abusive students will not be tolerated and need to be dealt with in a consistent, firm and well managed manner by the Education Department. Schools must have the authority to remove violent students. We are there to do our job, which is to educate our students. I believe that despite the improvement in salaries we still need to maintain a vigorous approach in order to keep up with other professions. I also feel that we must keep up the pressure to increase primary DOTT time, particularly when the number and range of ‘other duties’ is constantly increasing. As well as this, public education needs to be properly resourced to provide the best possible teaching environment and student outcomes. This is particularly important in rural and remote areas where living and work conditions are frequently substandard. I still have a passion for teaching and will continue to work towards a quality and strong public education system for all. If elected, my primary aim will be to ensure that teachers’ views are listened to and acted upon. I will continue to be proactive in supporting members concerns regarding the current issues in public education and I will ensure that our already hard won conditions are not given away in trade-offs. Vote Members First to have a voice in our union. |