Support Your Colleagues at UNSW and Macquarie – An Urgent Message from the NTEU General Secretary
Dear Friends,
Around 150 NTEU members have imposed bans on the transmission of examination results at the University of New South Wales and Macquarie University. NTEU Branch negotiators have spent more than two years trying to secure Collective Agreements which guarantee competitive pay rises, job security, reductions in contract and casual employment and the restoration of employment standards stripped away by the Howard Government’s Higher Education Workplace Relations Requirements (HEWRRs) and WorkChoices.
Members forced to take industrial action
NTEU members at 30 universities have already achieved Collective Agreements which deliver these guaranteed employment standards, and 5 other universities are close to settlement. Only the UNSW and Macquarie University managements have resisted and opposed these standards, particularly on job security and reducing contract and casual employment. UNSW and Macquarie members have been left with little choice but to pursue direct industrial action.
Management to unfairly penalise members imposing bans
The 150 members imposing bans have offered to perform their full range of duties except for the transmission of results. Management has rejected this offer and will not pay any salary to these members for the duration of the bans – this may well involve the loss of thousands of dollars for each member, many of whom are on relatively low salaries and/or are employed casually.
Urgent solidarity needed
I urge every NTEU member to provide direct support to our colleagues. Their fight is your fight – for employment standards which reflect the professionalism and productivity of all Australian university staff.
With your support our Macquarie and UNSW colleagues can win this dispute. You can make a big difference:
- Donate to the Fighting Fund – click here: http://www.nteu.org.au/myunion/get_involved/fighting_fund/donate. We need to raise sufficient funds to replace lost salary for our brave colleagues.
If you are an NTEU member at UNSW or Macquarie, any donation you make will be set aside to specifically support your local colleagues imposing bans. Money from the whole NTEU membership will be evenly distributed to members imposing the bans at both universities.
- Send a letter of protest to the Macquarie and UNSW Vice-Chancellors – click here: http://www.nteu.org.au/myunion/get_involved/fighting_fund/email_the_vcs. They need to know that university staff across Australia believe that UNSW and Macquarie staff deserve just and equal treatment.
Please support this appeal – you will find further information here:
- On the NTEU national website http://www.nteu.org.au/fighting_fund
- NTEU Macquarie campaign site http://www.mqstaff.org
- NTEU UNSW campaign site http://www.unswstaff.org
Grahame McCulloch
General Secretary
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Branch Contacts
Branch Office
Black Rose Bdg Armidale Campus
University of New England
Phone: 02 6773 3175
Fax: 02 6773 3973
une@nteu.org.au
http://www.nteu.org.au/une
Tim Battin
Branch President
tbattin@une.edu.au
Trevor Smith
Branch Organiser
tsmith@nteu.org.au
Comments
[ +1 ] Our class only have less than 20 students but the tutor is not tutoring us professionally. The lecturers want to compensate us with extra marks for this issue. Knowing that some of us will make a complaint. The tutor opt to help some students on their assignments so that they can give positive feedback. Some student suffered from this poor tutoring quality and also teaching sessions were rushed to finish....
Like • Dislike •If NTEU wants the students supports, please make sure that you keep up with your teaching quality.
Do we get respect as a student? Do we....
[ +3 ] I believe the university management and teaching staff have to resolved this issue as soon as possible. From a student perspective, the teaching quality has not been keeping up with the changes in our society. Students are not well prepared for any job in most cases. If they want to get paid well, I hope they can upgrade their skills and get closed to the real world. Students get penalised sometimes from speaking out about their views. So, we have to treat the teaching staff like king and queen. The collaboration in the classroom is very poor.
Like • Dislike •On the other hand, the university management is profit driven. So, this is like a boxing match between two camps. Students are all sandwiched between these two camps and we are real losers. I am sadden by all the happenings.
Do they respect students?
[ +3 ] Interesting..... The academics hae the 'right' to strike i.e. that is what you are doing... Yes you have offered to do other tasks except for the transmission of marks, but under IR laws part performance does not discharge the contractual obligations as required to receive you consideration i.e. pay.
Like • Dislike •Look as a student I suppose your reasons why and all, that universities should pay higher wages and give better working conditions like continuing contracts after a set period instead of the ridiculous rolling fixed contracts that seems to be over used by the business sector including the universities.
However, my problem is why are you using students as a bargaining leverage? If you truly believe that it is the university management that you have an issue with, why not say 'not publishing research output' or 'not report academic output' wouldn't that have harmed the university's reputation as universities are primarily judged on scholarly work?
I believe the reason why you have chosen to withhold students' grades is that this will not impact on your personal academic achievements which you may in future wish to use in order to gain a promotion or other benefit.
I wish you would have done what I suggested , since it will be more likely be supported by the student population since it would have hurt the university's reputation and would have been a self sacrifice on ones personal academic career.
just a thought... Although I doubt this would be published or if it did would be heavily edited.....
[ +1 ] The below was posted by Sarah Gregson on the article entitled "Our Campaign is Growing". Commenting on that blog has since closed, so I am bringing it over here. This is what she wrote, word for word:
Like • Dislike •"I think you should take all your understandable but misdirected anger at the situation and direct it at the real culprit - Fred Hilmer... Wanna know why we're doing this again? Because last time around, he promised to negotiate but, once the marks were handed in as a sign of good faith, he reneged and refused to bargain. That's why."
For academics, you aren't the brightest bunch. Firstly, why should I blame Hilmer? He isn't the self centered one holding my results for his personal gain! He isn't forcing you to hold my results! As I have already said, this is a dispute between employee and employer - you tree hugging, left wing aresholes are alienating quite possibly the only people on the entire planet that actually would give a shit about your weak cruscade.
Secondly, with regards to your above comment Sarah, do you know what the definition of an idiot is? Someone who does the same action twice and expects a different outcome. Clearly, by defintion Sarah, you are an IDIOT!
If Mr. Hilmer re-negged - good on him. I wouldn't re-hire you either. As far as blaming him for this action - I don't and neither should anyone else. Why would we? If all academics feel undervalued Sarah, why are there only 27 academics striking from the entire working staff of 2 universities? The NTEU love comparing themselves with other G08 universities, find me the statistics of how much support you have within your own ranks? How many teachers are there at UNSW and MQ? the NTEU are like the NSW Labor party (whom I'm sure you all vote for anyway, so you'll probably be flattered by the comparrison, but let me finish Sarah). You have less than a hand full of die-hard supporters and you pull rediculous stunts to hide your incompetence. You have a couple of people who actually know what they're talking about keeping the whole thing together, but at the end of the day, you'll crash, burn and be forgotten about because you are incompetent and you seemingly go OUT OF YOUR WAY to turn the only people who would and do care about your stupid playground antics against you (ie the pupils at universities).
Despite this, NTEU, let me tell you what your BIGGEST problem is.... It's your members. At that rediculous picket line stunt you held last semester (which, rather fittingly, was covered by "Left-wing weekly" newspaper and NO ONE ELSE GAVE A SHIT) the only people that were rallying were the raggiest bunch of unshaven, unkept looking miss-fits I have ever seen. Not only did these people not look like academcis, half of them looked like they'd never sat on a chair! How am I expected to feel sympathy for some lady, and i use that term very very loosely, whose as feminine as arnold schwarzneger, looks like shes on growth hormones, walks around with a shirt with "Himer sucks" on it (are you kiding me?!?!? what planet are you on where you walk around with crap plastered all over your shirt saying that your boss sucks!?!?!?!) and has more colours in her hair than you'll find on Oxford Street at 3am? Get real people. To Paul, you canned my last comment becuase it offended someone... For her sake, I haven't named who I am talking about but shes knows who she is and everyone at unsw knows who it is. to her, change your image love, its really really not a good look! unforutnately for the nteu, when i think of the union at unsw, this is the exact image i think of - some overgrown, overfed whinging hippy.
As far as that stupid picket line and those rediculous shirts you made go, thats a great image to be showing the student body of UNSW. Instead of being smart about your actions, just plaster shit everywhere. I am saying this right now on this bulletin, because I want everyone that reads this to know. If there is anything up around UNSW next semester about paying some fat hippy communist more money, or some shit about ending the war in Afghanistan or blaming the Howard Government for work choices not only will I pull it down and piss on it in the middle of the quad, but I will walk right up to the person putting the left wing propoganda crap up around everywhere and let them know what i think... As far as blaming workchoices for a lack of contract, well Sarah, you voted in wonderful Kevin 07, we had recession 08 and now you've got a fellow communist red head who needs a nose job and a shi.tload of lypo suction and where has it lead you to? We have economic uncertainty, a worsening relationship with the rest of the world and a 40 billion dollar surpluss GONE! Signed those new contracts yet wonderful Rudd promised 3 years ago Sarah? No, don't blame Kevin or the Labor party who openly promised to fix it! just blame your boss who is doing the right thing for the university as a whole and refusing to re-hire you lazy academics.
In retrospect Sarah, Paul and Anne, I think it is rather commical how this has played out. At the on-set when the story broke that the NTEU would bully the student body and hold the university at ransom, James was there to warn you. James warned you that the first time it was acceptable because everyone knows academics are a bunch of complainers who only work 3, sorry 3 and a half, days a week and have nothing better to do with their 4 months holiday than complain. but a second time and the same stunt? James warned you NTEU... This is getting repetative idiots!
To confirm, James is not one of these people that sit on the internet all day, playing dungeons and dragons, watching klinkons or whatever on youtube and abusing people online whilst hiding behind some alias on-line thing. Infact, this blog is the first thing I have ever written on.
It is clear that the NTEU has attempted to play the sympathy card, but its all blown up in your face. Judging by the overwhelming amount of student support the NTEU is missing (as can be seen in all of the above comments) and the direct attacks by many many other students - you have clearly failed. pull out of this with some dignity and publish the results. I'm waiting for mine.
[ +1 ] "student" - instead of being abusive, how about doing something constructive like getting yourself informed about what's really going on.
Like • Dislike •If you are going to be seriously disadvantaged by the bans, apply for exemption - go to the "students" tab above and follow the link to the online exemption form.
The union doesn't see you as collateral damage at all - it's the university willing to disregard the quality of your education as it clings to outdated employment conditions that should have gone out with the Howard Government that put them in place.
[ +3 ] "In the long run, the conditions we are proposing in our negotiations with the management will improve the quality of your learning experience."
Like • Dislike •At this rate..., in the long run we would have finished uni and it would not have benefitted us at all. But yeh this has ruined my holidays, cost me a scholarship and induced loads of stress. Thankyou very much NTEU for looking after my future.
[ 0 ] I understand the reasonings and your aims. I agree with your standing and your purpose.
Like • Dislike •This said however,
It is unfair too, in my part. I work two jobs in my (Christmas, Easter, mid semester) holidays just to pay for the university fee. and I really want I get my share of the deal, which is my mark. I hope you understand that, I am in your shoes too. in my shoes, you are just like the prof. Hilmer (aka the vice councelor), who witholdes my mark (in your case, money) because of the ban.
So rather than depriving students from their marks, why dont think of something else that will only push the university?
[ +1 ] Agree with the statement above. NTEU you have completely turned the student population against you, and are doing yourselves no favours. By withholding student results you have not done anything more than upset and anger students. No attention by students whatsoever is being paid to the reasons behind the protest because you are doing us a disservice which the students are too preoccupied worrying about. What a pathetic way to carry out bargaining. Why punish an innocent population of students to get what you want? Does the means justify the ends, i think not!
Like • Dislike •As educators, who have dedicated their lives to students, this is such a low low act. What a disappointment to know that the very lecturers that stood before us this semester and helped us to learn are actually the ones voluntarily causing us so much grief.
[ +5 ] Dear "student",
Like • Dislike •I will overlook your unnecessary abuse to respond to the substance of your post.
If you are likely to suffer serious disadvantage because of the withholding of grades, please go to the 'student' tab above and follow the link to the exemptions application.
Staff are taking action in defence of not only our own working conditions but quality education and research. We certainly don't see students as "just collateral damage" - if anyone is treating students this way it is the University management, who have continued to implement employment policies and conditions and funding schemes that have resulted in overcrowded classrooms, large classes and unmanageable workloads for staff. We don't want to see the continuation of these conditions, that compromise the quality of our teaching and your learning experience.
We ask for your support, and if you can't give that, your patience, while we work through the issues at the core of this dispute.
You might be interested to note that the Upper House of the NSW Parliament yesterday passed - unanimously - a motion condemning the Macquarie and UNSW Vice-Chancellors for their continued intransigence in bargaining. These VCs are the only two who have refused point blank to restore important working conditions lost under John Howard's Workchoices regime - a system that Australians voted out in 2007. The loss of those conditions has led to an escalation of contract and casual employment in our universities - and Macquarie is one of the most highly casualised in the sector. Have you had the problem of not being able to contact your tutor because he or she is a casual staff member and hardly ever on campus? If the NTEU does not win back those conditions, you can expect to see a lot more of that sort of thing at Macquarie. We believe that this will disadvantage you in your education far, far more than just receiving your results a bit late. That's why we're taking this action now - we need to "stop the rot" and defend the quality of teaching and research at Macquarie.
But just to reiterate - we are NOT seeking to seriously disadvantage students, so if you feel that you would really suffer serious disadvantage from the withholding of your results, please apply for an exemption and we will consider it.
[ +2 ] Can anyone post here?
Like • Dislike •