About 30,000 union members from across the state gathered in the Domain on September 8 to protest changes made to the NSW Industrial Relations Act by the state government.
The changes cap wage raises for public service workers by 2.5 per cent per year and weaken their negotiation rights. A call for 5,000 voluntary redundancies in the state’s September 6 budget added to the crowd’s ire.
Members of Unions NSW organised the rally and its secretary, Mark Lennon, addressed the assembled workers.
“The public service workers of this state are being sacrificed on the altar of a triple-A credit rating, and it is not good enough,” he said.
Members of more than a dozen unions were present, including large contingents from the Public Service Association and the Australian Services Union. The largest group represented was the NSW Teachers Federation, whose members defied an order from the Industrial Relations Committee to cancel their planned strike for the day.
Allanah Anson from the Police Association of NSW told the crowd that despite there being an exemption for police in the new laws, the PANSW still objected.
“The police association will stand side by side with you all the way,” she said.
Ms Anson spoke of how the deterioration of other public services would put more strain on NSW police forces.
Leighton Drury from the Fire Brigade Employees Union told the crowd that Premier Barry O’Farrell needs to realise that NSW fire brigades are a service, not a business.
“All he cares about is having the cheapest-run fire department,” he said.
The crowd took part in a mass text message of ‘Not happy Barry’ to a mobile phone number that many assumed was O’Farrell’s, though this wasn’t stated by organisers. A later call to that number showed it had been deactivated.
A series of talks from delegates of various unions was followed by a march past the State Library, down Macquarie Street, which was closed to traffic, and into Hyde Park. As protestors passed Parliament House, they chanted ‘Shame Barry Shame.’ Some Labor MPs stood on the balcony of the legislative building in support.
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