Mick, Reader's Comment 11 of 22, SOS sent to young teachers across NSW, Kate Sikora, The Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2011: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/sos-sent-to-young-teachers-across-nsw/story-e6freuzi-1226216698710 Historical link preserved from the original page.
New South Wales: Do teacher unions exploit their members?
The NSW Teachers Federation and the Australian Education Union are not insignificant factors in discouraging young people from becoming teachers. Historical link preserved from the original page.
Oafishly and obstinately left-wing, they project anything but professional qualities.
Like most unions, they are overstaffed by heavily bureaucratic officials.
And, in common with most unions, they exploit their members by using the unions finances and political clout to serve the careers of these officials.
In general, teacher unions are most reliable when it comes to resisting change, any change.
A young teacher in the NSW Public Education system is ground between the stone of the vast, costly and inefficient department bureaucracy, and that of the union.
Editor's Note: I worked in NSW for thirteen years before I was recruited to work in Queensland and, in my observation, the New South Wales Teachers' Federation was MUCH more active and effective than the Queensland Teachers' Union.
The high level of fear in school staffrooms hit me the moment that I arrived in Queensland.
It is something that you could not imagine.