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June 28th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda An international trade union council has condemned what it calls an attempt to “criminalise” industrial action by the NSW Teachers Federation.
In a letter of solidarity addressed to the federation, which on Thursday was fined $6000 for an illegal strike, the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) said it stood behind the union’s “struggles for a school that puts students first”.
But the WFTU appears to be mistakenly laying the blame for NSW schools policy, and fines issued by the state’s Industrial Relations Commission, with the federal government.
“WFTU strongly denounces any effort from the Australian government to criminalise your struggles with fines or threats and demands the immediate satisfaction of your demands,” the letter said.
Federal School Education Minister Peter Garrett and Federal Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten were both copied in on the letter but it does not appear to have been sent to ministers in the NSW government, which is working to pass legislation in the upper house to have unions fined up to $110,000 for disobeying the industrial umpire.
Comment has been sought from the WFTU.
About 67,000 NSW teachers walked off the job on September 8 over a 2.5 per cent cap on wages in the public sector, defying a ruling from the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC).
On Thursday morning, IRC justice Wayne Haylen fined the union $6000.
The state government has criticised the IRC for taking too long to fine the union after 55,000 teachers defied the IRC once again and walked off the job on Wednesday.
The most recent strike was in protest against the O’Farrell government’s latest education reforms and the union is risking a maximum fine of $10,000.
The WFTU later said it considered the NSW Teachers Federation’s industrial action to be part of a nationwide struggle.
“The labour relations and the trade union rights as well as the main principles of the education system are a federal issue although there are state decisions,” spokeswoman Alexandra Liberi told AAP.
“(It) is our duty in solidarity with the working people in Australia to demand from the federal government not to have any tolerance with such phenomena that attack trade union rights and freedoms.
“Any tolerance is complicity.”
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