Stop supercharging climate change

NTEU National Council in 2019 passed a resolution calling on UniSuper – the superannuation fund for workers in the higher education sector – to ‘urgently prepare a ten-year plan to transition all invested funds to be fully carbon neutral by 2030’. In 2020, NTEU will be campaigning in earnest for UniSuper to divest from fossil fuels and provide greater transparency on the fund’s investments, both direct and indirect. By calling on UniSuper to divest from fossil fuels, the NTEU seeks to ensure that the retirement savings of its members are not being used to underwrite a future dominated by catastrophic global heating. By successfully targeting UniSuper, members can be satisfied that they are influencing not only the conduct of their own super fund but of other market players in Australia and internationally. UniSuper is the fifth largest superannuation fund in Australia with a portfolio worth over $80 billion. Investment decisions by UniSuper ripple throughout the broader economy. UniSuper is no innocent when it comes to investing in fossil fuels. Among the major holdings it discloses are large fossil fuel companies such as BHP, Woodside Petroleum, Santos, APA, Enbridge Inc, and TL Energy – many of whom are actively undermining the climate goals of the Paris Agreement. Unfortunately, it is not possible to get a full picture of the extent of UniSuper’s integration with the fossil fuel industry because of its opaque reporting. UniSuper only discloses its top 20 Australian and top 20 international shareholdings. It does not fully disclose the extent of indirect investment in fossil fuels. Members should and do expect better. In November 2018, UniSuper joined the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) which has over 1,000 member organisations with a combined market capitalisation of $12 trillion. The TCFD’s stated aim is for companies to issue ‘decision-useful’ disclosures, such as greenhouse gas emissions associated with investments, and outline strategies for reducing exposure to climate risks such as to reach ‘net zero’ by 2050. UniSuper’s 2019 Climate Risk Management and Investments at UniSuper report, however, does not appear to provide detail at the level required by the TCFD. For example, a substantial proportion of UniSuper funds are managed ‘externally’ by investment managers and it is unclear whether UniSuper reveals the degree of climate-risk exposure these funds represent. As members, it is vitally important that we have access to the information required to genuinely assess the impact of our super fund and its various investment products. UniSuper has an increasingly urgent obligation to improve in this regard. Super funds are obliged to make decisions in the best financial interests of their members. Many have argued that fossil fuel divestment is an environmental, rather than a financial, matter. Yet, as the economic impacts of global heating become more recognised, this argument is increasingly tenuous. In February 2020, Reserve Bank of Australia Governor, Philip Lowe, warned of investors being left with ‘stranded assets’ because of climate change and recent events illustrate that this is certainly a major risk.

Last year, Norway’s trillion-dollar Government Pension Fund Global – the world’s largest wealth fund – announced a plan to sell off stakes in oil and gas exploration and production to reduce vulnerability to fossil fuel prices and to invest in renewable energy infrastructure projects and companies.

Blackrock, the world’s biggest asset manager, announced in 2019 that it would 'put climate change at the centre of its investment strategy' and divest from coal.

What this tells us is that the NTEU’s divestment campaign is both environmentally and financially sustainable. It seeks to protect the retirement incomes of its members and ensure that our superannuation fund is driving the changes that are needed to safeguard all of our futures. In the coming months, NTEU members will be called on to take action to combat fossil fuel driven global heating. Keeping our superannuation fund honest is one very meaningful and practical way that higher education workers can play an important role in de-carbonising the economy and transitioning to a sustainable future. ◆

Damien Cahill, NSW Division Assistant Secretary and Vince Caughley, UTS Branch President Find out more at divestunisuper.nteu.org.au

OK, Boomers – step up!

When I hear the retort 'OK, Boomer', I nod along because our children are unlikely to have the opportunities many of us had.* This can, in part, be attributed to the deliberate erosion of union power.

We had trade unions and social movements that formed in the face of often violent opposition and many of us fought for decent work, against sexism, racism, homophobia and nuclear power, and for peace, justice and environmental sustainability. But too many boomers got comfortable and let go of the fight. A couple of years ago my daughter rang me to say that she had been too sick to go to work, but was delighted when she found she was still paid. It was her first experience of paid sick leave. Recently, I explained to a younger colleague that I was taking a month’s holiday mid-year as I had accumulated long service leave. He did not know about long service leave, which is not surprising considering his employment experience is casual and short term contracts. I explained that unions had won paid sick and holiday leave, as well as long service leave (LSL). I realised, as soon as I said it though, that LSL is becoming rare, as even workers in what were secure fields are now more likely to be employed precariously. And they have to fight for any paid leave. And while many employers do stick to the award and the enterprise agreement (if there is one) wage theft is endemic across the workforce. Today we have no legal right to strike, and go through a ridiculous rigmarole to even take action during a bargaining period. But until enough of us are prepared to withdraw our labour, we will continue to see few wins, and the ongoing erosion of our pay and conditions. When I started working as a teacher, it was casual employment, but my expectation was that soonish I’d get an ongoing job with the attendant benefits. As a woman I was particularly pleased, as while I had no baby plans then, the education unions had won 12 weeks paid maternity leave and up to 7 years unpaid leave. Some of us had already joined up while at university, and knew we should be active union members. There were plenty of opportunities to do so. I wanted to make sure my union leaders were focused upon fighting for secure jobs for early career teachers, as ‘limited tenure’ employment was creeping in. I quickly learned that the union would back me up when I spoke on my and colleagues' behalf. Management respected the union and were also a bit scared of us. Everyone in my work area was a member. Back then there were workplaces where you had to join the union. I had worked in ‘closed shop’ factories, and while the face of the union was the old bloke who came around collecting dues, it still felt safer in a dangerous factory. When industrial action was called, we downed tools and walked out. Our pay was docked, but we still had our jobs. This was how collectively, unions won workplace health and safety laws. It was a bit different in teaching, but in the end the only way to deal with intransigent management was to withdraw our labour, which we did. Many of us had been at high schools where our teachers had gone on strike for smaller classes and more teachers; for more resources for state schools; against teachers

being sacked for speaking out on controversial issues like sex education; and in support of other unionists being persecuted. We had seen action and solidarity work.

I arrived at a my university job just as the NTEU was coming together and I was excited to be in an industry union. In unity is strength. Locally, we had pretty high membership density – you could tell because non-members were ashamed to admit it. It was also clear that management relied upon the union’s expertise in dealing with industrial matters. We still ended up on the picket line each enterprise bargaining round, but we were holding out for big wins. The union was a big presence on campus. Delegates were plentiful and respected as they walked about delivering newsletters and checking up on how we were travelling. NTEU Friday arvo drinks were the place to be. So what happened? The effectiveness of the extremist campaign by anti-union forces to undermine our unions legislatively, politically and culturally cannot be understated. Sure well unionised industries were closing down; and ‘restructuring’ was doing in unionised jobs replacing these with precarious employment. And yes, we union activists and leaders were slow off the mark in organising in new workplaces and amongst the insecure workers in our own workplaces. But the anti-union forces from the big end of town and their allies in the Coalition and the media were/are out to get us. Today we have low union membership and density except in emergency services, teaching, nursing and some trades. In universities, too many colleagues are wary of speaking up as we are one restructure away from redundancy. Others are hanging out for the next contract. Rarely do we walk off the job and march over to the Vice-Chancellor's office.

Over in the UK we see the solidarity of younger casually employed university staff going on strike in opposition to changes to the pension funds of secure, well paid academics – and yet most of those baby boomers are not striking for secure jobs for the next generations. Elsewhere the fight is on. In parts of the United States to France and Chile strikes are attracting workers, young and old, with students, demanding decent jobs and decent pay and action to stop the destruction of the planet.

So when I hear the put down 'OK boomer', I agree we have a lot to answer for. And it is about time we stood up alongside younger people, and we all listen and learn and unite to fight for an equal and just world. ◆

Jeannie Rea was NTEU National President 2010–2018, and is an Associate Professor at Victoria University *My OK Boomer status is not shared by most of my friends who do not have secure job stories because they are women who had babies; are Indigenous and faced discrimination; worked in poorly remunerated welfare and advocacy; got sick or injured or are just unlucky. Few women I know have much superannuation at all, and few own a home.