Striking NECA Education teachers make a stand

IEU members working at National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) Education and Careers in North Carlton took strike action Thursday 9 May, demanding action on a long overdue wage claim.

Some third year apprentices taught by NECA Educators earn more money than their teachers! Yet negotiations on wages are stalled over a year after they began.

At the rally in North Carlton, Assistant Rep Nelson Dore said NECA Education had lost three trainers this year because of the protracted negotiations.

“And to be honest they probably wouldn’t have been looking if this was sorted a long time ago. The fact that it’s dragged out made their eyes wander and ask where they could make a better buck…”

Other NECA Education workers said there was a need for ten more teachers in their workforce. Despite this, management have refused to budge on fair wage increases.

NECA Education teachers unite.

NECA Education teachers walked out of work at 11.30am, handing a flier to the apprentices they teach laying out the reasons for their industrial action.

NECA Education teachers, 95% of whom are IEU members, were joined by supporters from the IEU, the Electrical Trades Union and Trades Hall on the wide median at the intersection of Lygon and Pigdon Streets, with IEU flags, union tunes, merchandise and banners attracting toots of solidarity from passing traffic.

Gathering for a photo, the crowd struck up familiar union chants, but NECA Education staff added one of their own: “Support the teachers that support you!”.

“The IEU is behind you!”

Addressing the crowd, IEU General Secretary David Brear said IEU members work in a “really broad variety of settings”, not just schools but for private training providers like NECA.

“But there’s a few things that our members have in common. One is a real commitment to quality education. We take it really seriously that our members provide quality education, in this case, to the next generation of electricians.

“Another thing that our members have in common is a determination that education is important and that the remuneration and conditions people work under in education need to be fair and reasonable.

“So, I really congratulate you all, led by Nick and Nelson, for being out here today standing on your digs and saying we want a fair deal.”

David pointed out that the face-to-face teaching time worked by NECA Education teachers “is a fair bit more than what’s asked of people in other settings”.

He said the fight for wage justice at NECA Education might be prolonged but “nothing sharpens the bosses’ attention more than walking off the job” and the NECA Education members had the backing of the entire IEU.

“We believe in what you believe in. We believe in reasonable conditions for people working in education and we believe in quality education.”

Passionate educators

NECA Education Rep Nick Oates said teachers like Assistant Rep Nelson Dore “could go out and work in an industry and tomorrow and make probably double the amount he does now, but he chooses to do this because he believes in it”.

Addressing the crowd, Nelson said, “I really love coming to work with this team. We’ve got a really supportive environment, not only with each other, but with the apprentices. It’s important that we maintain that and keep that and grow from there. It’s important that we build and create an environment that’s nice to come to and we get fair wages for fair work.”

Later, he spoke of teaching as a rewarding job.

“I love coming to work and empowering young people to enhance their career get their first steps in what could be a fruitful career for them. It’s a big passion that I have along with all the other teachers here. It’s something that I think we all have in us – to help people and pass on our knowledge and help them get to where they need to be.”

Nick Oates said with the growth in green power the electrical industry was “huge” and still growing.

“All governments want all the electricians they can get but to get these electricians someone needs to train them. And I might be biased but I think we’ve got the best teachers in Australia.”

He praised the work commitment of NECA Education workers, including two who were at the rally despite recently departing NECA for better paying jobs in construction.

“Our role is to train these apprentices and make them good; there’s only so much you can learn on a job site, and we do a lot of that heavy lifting of educating them here at the trade school.

“We bother to train, we bother to listen, we bother to have patience to make sure that we can turn out these apprentices to be A grade electricians.”

Close but no wage justice

IEU Organiser James Rankin said he was confident that an agreement will be eventually achieved but in the short term the employer “is not coming to the table and offering a wage increase which our members think is fair and reasonable”.

“We’re not getting a wage increase that is going to keep teachers at NECA and we know we’ve lost a couple in the last few weeks.

“We need a salary increase that attracts the best possible people to come to work at NECA. That’s in the best interests of our workers our members but also the students they teach and in fact NECA themselves. Because if they can’t attract good people, what sort of organisation are they going to have?

“Hopefully today’s industrial action will show that we’re pretty serious about this and we’re not going to take a crappy pay rise. But it may take some time. We should be prepared to do whatever it takes to get a decent pay rise.”

The IEU ‘salvation’

Nick Oakes was also hopeful that the strike would have a “positive effect” on management.

“This dispute has been going on since 2022 when we first put our options on the table, and nothing even got recognised. We waited a few months and then there was only one way to do it, so we had to search around, and we got under the banner of the IEU.

“And to us it’s been almost like salvation because we know that we’re totally united.”

Nick said that prior to gaining IEU guidance and support, staff felt there was little they could do to progress negotiations.

“Before there was nothing legally binding that could be done. If we felt like taking some action, there was nothing we could do. Having the IEU we now know that once we go through the processes, we are protected by law that we can take the actions we take.”