Meeting COVID challenges

Matthew McGowan, General Secretary

The trauma of 2020 is nearly behind us, and we are all hoping for a COVID–normal Christmas.

As we prepare for a much-needed break it is worth acknowledging that many of our colleagues are still facing insecurity about next year, with no clear journey to post-COVID recovery yet for our tertiary education sector. I have been incredibly impressed and humbled this year by the willingness of our membership to be truly collective at heart, and willing to put their individual needs second to the needs of the broader higher education community, and to act in a way that delivers the best outcomes for the most number of people in their workplaces.

I was very proud to lead the efforts of our union to prosecute a National Jobs Protection Framework to guide us through the worst crisis our industry has every faced. It gave us a strong vision and a strategy to save jobs. If only our university managements and VCs had a similar commitment to the whole. I ask members to think about sending an email of thanks to your local Union reps – they have worked so hard this year representing your interests to your employers and to our national Union, often without thanks or recognition. It’s a small gesture that will be appreciated. We have achieved much this year in a difficult climate. Whatever disappointments and challenges this year presented, the Union has stood firm and come out stronger at the end of it. If you haven’t read the Union’s Annual Report, I recommend taking the time to see what your Union has achieved.

In short:

• Strong membership growth.

• Strong support for the efforts of the Union to protect jobs.

• Strong campaign efforts that have increased Union influence

We have to be looking to the next year and what will face us then.

In this COVID-impacted environment, we must prepare for enterprise bargaining in 2021. National Council will consider our strategy in early December. But several things are clear. University staff have made significant sacrifices over this year including rapid responses to shifting courses online, adjusting to a new working reality from home and in the office, and of course, the uncertainty of how the financial difficulties will impact on employment and workloads.

Things will continue to be difficult next year, but workers in universities have a right to expect management to recognise and support the efforts made by staff. Bargaining will be about solving issues that existed before COVID, but made more urgent as a result.

Issues like;

• Insecure work – The Academy needs to find a better way to build pathways into academia than unmanaged casual labour. The sink or swim, or rather the tread water for a decade, approach cannot be acceptable into the future.

• For professional and academic research staff, the life of rolling fixed term contracts without end – it has to end. Our brightest researchers are being thrown on the scrap heap without fair compensation.

• Recent Federal Court cases raise questions about the protections in place for academic and intellectual freedom.

• Recent Choice of Fund legislation and proposals to 'staple' staff to a particular super fund present real challenges for UniSuper. We need to consider our response to possible threats to the retirement incomes of our members.

There are many more issues that may arise in the debates, but these will be debated and resolved at a Bargaining Conference and Special National Council Meeting to be held on 10-11 December. These meetings will involve elected representatives from every university Branch in the country. This is the strength of our union – democratic processes that elect your Union voice, strong debate and then unity around our decision making and purpose.

I urge every member committed to the Union and solidarity to have your say, and then help build the strong unified voice we need to take into bargaining. Having an opinion is not enough, working to deliver for our members is what we must be judged on.

While many campuses are still struggling with the reality of COVID-19 job losses, we need to lift our gaze and look to the future of the sector and to the nature of employment in it. COVID-19 has changed everything. And NTEU will adapt to meet the challenge.