positivelypublic

Letter to school cleaners, janitors and grounds staff

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We need to take a stand now for the jobs and conditions of school cleaning and maintenance staff everywhere in Queensland.

The state government’s proposal to contract out cleaning and maintenance in seven new schools is a direct attack on the jobs and wages of its lowest-paid employees.

That’s why the LHMU and the QPSU have combined forces to campaign against these plans and defend workers’ wages and conditions. We’re calling this the “positively public” campaign – because public services like school cleaning and maintenance should be provided by public sector workers.

We can win this campaign to defend jobs and wages – but only if we have the support of all cleaners, all schools officers, and other members of school communities across the state.

We know it won’t be easy, and we know Education Queensland is already spreading misinformation to try to stop the campaign.

They say that the pay and conditions of existing workers won’t be affected – but why adopt a new model of building schools unless they plan to extend it across the state?

And if this is about building schools quickly, why will private contractors determine the wages and conditions of school cleaning and maintenance workers for at least 30 years? That’s hardly a short time.

Education Queensland has already tried to contract out all school cleaning in all schools across the state, in the 1990’s – if they succeed in doing it now in seven schools, why would they stop?

We need to take a stand against contracting out here and now, so that the employer knows once and for all that our jobs are not out for tender.

We urge you to read the material on this web site and be a part of the fight to make sure that the state government does not sell out our jobs – not now, and not in the future.

Yours in union

PS. Please read the material on this site and support the campaign to stop our jobs and conditions being put out for tender.