Strike day motion passed at the VU NTEU meeting
Yesterday’s members meeting unanimously voted to call for the Vice Chancellor to step down, and for all NTEU members to strike on Open Day, August 8. This regrettable step has been taken because;
1/ Management committed to pay rises in 2010 in a written agreement with the union
2/ Management have reneged on this written commitment
3/ VU staff are among the lowest paid in the University sector
The for 4 motionspassed unanimously at yesterday’s meetingare as follows:
1. That this General Meeting of the VU NTEU Branch reiterates its condemnation of:
- Management's reneging on commitments made last year, in the Heads of Agreement that lead to the 2009 Agreement, to pay salary rises in 2010, which leaves VU staff among the worst paid in the sector;
- Management's refusal to seriously discuss ways to resolve the dispute and to bargain in good faith for a new Agreement; and
- Management's continuing and escalating aggressive response to the union industrial action.
2. That this meeting further calls on University management to
- bargain in good faith with the NTEU;
- provide an immediate pay rise comparable with industry standards so that VU staff do not become the worst paid staff out of 42 universities in Australia; and
- immediately and unconditionally reinstate payment of wages for those staff participating in the current results bans.
3. Further, that this meeting endorses an escalation of industrial action and community protest action to protest against Management's failure to bargain in good faith and attempts to massively increase workloads of general staff and academic staff. This action will include:
- A strike on Open Day, Sunday 8 August;
- Rolling strike action to begin after Open Day, on dates to be determined by the Branch Committee;
- Escalation of the community and media campaign; and
4. Due to the ineffectual and duplicitous manner in which this situation has been handled by the Vice Chancellor, that this meeting calls on VU Council to immediately stand down the Vice Chancellor.
As you will see above in bold, one of the motions calls for a strike on Open Day, Sunday 8 August. We are therefore calling on all members to support the Strike on Open Day to send a clear message to VU senior management that their failure to bargain in good faith, including their inaction in genuinely negotiating a payrise for all general and academic staff, will not be tolerated any longer. We don’t take this action lightly, but enough is enough; the Union demands that VU senior management begin treating VU staff with respect!
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