NSW Division
Posts tagged with bargaining
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Sydney University Industrial Action - 26 & 27 March
Staff at Sydney University took further strike action on 26 and 27 March to defend conditions previously fought for and won, and to advance claims designed to address important issues facing many of ...
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Open Letters
Sydney University staff, general and academic, have been writing letters to inform management of their reasons for supporting the Enterprise Bargaining campaign and industrial action.
These letters are powerful and eloquent and speak to the anxieties university staff have about the direction management is taking Sydney University, and their hopes for Higher Education and this institution. Please read and share them widely.
Staff at Sydney University have also made a video (Dear Michael - An open letter to the Vice Chancellor) which you can view below.
Dear Michael - An open letter to the Vice Chancellor
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Open Letter to the Provost - Laleen Jayamanne
"The history of reason speaks to its continual power to generate life that is creative rather than deadening, joyous rather than fearful, critical rather than obedient. It provides us with a keen understanding of how reason may be perverted in the name of an instrumentalised model of thought and action. For example: recently we were told by senior research and management staff that what was needed NOW was “quality” not “quantity”. This comes within months of all academic members of staff being threatened with redundancy if they did not meet an arbitraryand retrospective quantity of research, with little or no consideration of quality. This kind of double talk, unaccountable capricious rhetoric to which we are ceaselessly subjected, makes me feel that I am a minor player in a very badly scripted absurdist play, perhaps Ionesco. It also creates fear, not conducive to thought and good health."• -
Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Nour Dados
"I can tell you that our lives offer us no such flexibility – rent still has to be paid, bills still have to be paid, and food has to be put on the table. No-one I know has a casual life, nor do they have a casual attitude to their work. Giving those of my generation no choice other than to accept precarious work conditions in order to have work at all marginalises and devalues our contribution to the collective knowledge that all of us benefit from."
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Staff at the University of Sydney set to strike again – this time for two days
Staff at the University of Sydney are set strike again – this time for two full days on Tuesday and Wednesday (26 –27 March) – after the failure of negotiations on a collective ... -
Open Letter to the Provost - Rowanne Couch
"I will be participating in next week’s strike despite the financial challenge it presents to me as an HEO7 with rent to pay -- after all these years of working, I’m one of many who still looks longingly at the prospect of buying my own place as it recedes into the middle distance. It’s sobering to know that next week I’ll be volunteering to forfeit 40% of my wage, and that across the University, many staff earning far less than me will be doing the same. While I stand by my commitment to the NTEU, and to the principle of collective bargaining as a means of redressing the inevitable power imbalance in negotiating contracts between an individual and a massive institution such as ours, I have to say that I’m wary, uncertain and frightened about my future. I can assure you that I don’t take my decision to strike lightly."
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Mark Johnston
"Rather than taking pride in what we’ve accomplished together, the management has tried to embarrass us by cherry picking some of our conditions like sick leave in their statements to the media. Managment representatives have also neglected to discuss or even acknowledge the host of other basic conditions they are trying to roll back, like the right to be represented by our unions in negotiations, the right to be consulted in a change management process – also sound organisational practice – and the right to have our job reclassified if our responsibilities and workload substantially exceed our original terms of employment. It is indicative of the management’s attitude to staff that in their silence on these issues they have not fairly represented what is at stake in this dispute."
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Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor - Raewyn Connell.
"To management, this looks like flexibility. To many of my younger colleagues, it looks like a life of precarious labour, scrabbling for short-term, part-time and totally insecure appointments. These are poor conditions for building an intellectual workforce. From an educational point of view, it means a mass of teaching done by staff who can’t build up the experience, depth of knowledge, or confident relationship with students that are needed for the very best teaching."
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FAQs for Strike Day - March 26 and March 27
Frequently Asked Questions1. Why is the strike taking place?
The NTEU website below contains information on why members are taking industrial action.
http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney/article/This-is-Why-Members-are-Taking-a-Stand-13970
Further information, and resources for your use, can be found at:
2. When is the strike?
Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March 2013
3. Who is taking part in the strike?
Members of the NTEU and CPSU, students, Unions NSW and other unions, community organisations and politicians will take part in the strike.
4. Do I stay home on strike day?
No, the strike is not a “day off”, it is an important opportunity to show management that University staff are united in our fight for an enterprise agreement that is fair for staff, students and the University community.
5. What should I do on 26 and 27 March?
Come to the main campus and join us at the City Road entrance at Eastern Avenue.
Pickets will commence from 7am and run through the day. Look for the picket co-ordinator in the yellow vest if you have any questions or require assistance.
6. What is the picket?
The picket line is the physical sign of support for the Union, staff and their conditions, students and the quality of their education. The purpose of the pickets is to inform staff, students, passers-by and visitors of the existence of an industrial dispute. Picketers will seek to persuade staff, students and visitors that they should not cross the picket line. At our 7 March strike this was very successful with many drivers, staff and students turning around and not entering the University. It also resulted in people joining the pickets.
In all cases, picketers should act in a peaceful and orderly manner. More information can be found in the Picket Line Protocol at http://www.nteu.org.au/sydney.
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Strike And Picket - March 26 and 27
NTEU members at the University of Sydney voted on Thursday to take further Industrial Action as part of their Enterprise Bargaining Campaign. This is in part because the last Strike saw management make some movement in Enterprise Bargaining negotiations.
Members voted for 48 Hour Strike Action on Tuesday March 26 and Wednesday March 27.
Pickets will be on all main entrances on both days beginning at 7 am.
Here is a file you can download and use either as a leaflet or a poster to advertise the upcoming action.
Other
(228 KB) - PDFUSYD: Strike and Picket Poster - 26 and 27 March
Published: 20 Mar, 2013
Tags: EB6, USYD, Sydney, Syd, bargaining, Strike, poster
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