Senior Vice President: Patricia Burke

I have been a union member since I commenced teaching over 20 years ago. Since that time I have been highly active in our Union, continually taking on a wide range of responsibilities in my role as a representative of teachers. These responsibilities culminated in me being asked to join the Executive about 10 years ago, being elected as the Vice President about 6 years ago and in being elected as the Senior Vice President of the SSTUWA and Branch Deputy President of the AEUWA in 2007 on the Members First team. As such, I am very cognisant of the issues for school and TAFE teachers.

I have been a negotiator on the last 4 negotiation teams for TAFE Agreements (TAs) and have lead negotiations for the last three TAs. In the 2000 Agreement I stood out against the other negotiators for paid maternity leave. I was successful and paved the way for maternity leave for other public servants and teachers in WA. Under my leadership for the 2003 & 2005 Agreements, TAFE lecturers received a 2 hour reduction in face to face teaching per week and a 2 hour increase in DOTT (known as ARD in TAFE) per week. 93% of TAFE members voted in support of these two Agreements. My leadership in negotiations for the current 2008 TA resulted in pay increases of between 18.5% - 20.5% plus an extra 5% on top of this for members wishing to take up the Flexible Hours Arrangement. 97% of TAFE members voted in favour of this TA. My leadership has resulted in overwhelming support from our TAFE members.

The success of these TAs was facilitated because I ensured that the negotiation teams included up to 6 practicing TAFE teachers from a variety of TAFE areas. TAFE members were able to tell their own stories about how the salaries and conditions impacted on their teaching lives throughout negotiations, providing more impact on the employers who could not dismiss them. At the conclusion of every negotiation meeting, TAFE members were fully informed of discussions and the status of the negotiations via a negotiating newsletter.

As the Senior Vice President of the SSTUWA, my strategies were incorporated into the strategies used by the current Senior Officers and the Executive, the end result of which was an Agreement for teachers that included no trade offs and an increase in salary unrivalled in the past.

My union history has shown that I am committed to leading members by listening to what they say and to representing their concerns honestly and fairly. My leadership style is both consultative and collaborative. I work closely with Senior Officers, Executive, my colleagues in the union office and activist members in everything that I do so that I can be guided by their experiences and knowledge to ensure that I am cognisant of all arguments pertaining to an issue or problem.

In all my union roles, I have had extensive experience dealing with the WA Government, Federal politicians and DET. If re-elected you will continue to have a person who has a long history of lobbying, negotiating, dealing with large bureaucracies and who works very closely with the members she represents, ensuring that members have input into all our decisions, all our policies, all our Agreement negotiations and on our stance when having discussions with DET.

I look forward to working in partnership with all teachers, your union organisers and with the Members First team to improve working conditions and salaries for all members if you again vote for me as the Senior Vice President of your union.

MF Documents

Members First Team