National Week ofAction for secure jobs& safe workloads

Michael Evans, National Organiser (Member Engagement)

Thousands of NTEU members around Australia took part in a National Week of Action from 13-17 September, in support of secure jobs and safe workloads.

The action was called to highlight the Union’s priorities for this new bargaining round and provide a national focus on the most important issues facing members and other university staff.

The week featured activities to engage with university communities and were designed to send clear messages to Vice-Chancellors to fix these issues during this round of bargaining over pay and conditions.

High levels of casualisation and fixedterm contracts – at the same time as VCs are cutting jobs – is contributing to unsafe workloads in the sector, as is the additional and related pressures created by COVID for all staff. This is making it harder for members to deliver high quality education and research.

Christine Lee, WSU

An Avoidable Catastrophe

The week began with the launch of An Avoidable Catastrophe – the Pandemic and Job Losses in Higher Education and their Consequences, a research paper recently prepared for the NTEU by the Australia Institute’s Centre for Future Work (see report in Sentry, Oct 2021).

The paper estimates that 40,000 jobs – one in five in the sector – have been lost in tertiary education in the 12 months to May 2021, with 35,000 lost at universities. And it’s not only casual and fixed-term staff losing their jobs – many ongoing jobs are disappearing too.

The research paper received widespread media coverage around Australia over the course of the week.

Kara Beavis, QUT

Branch activities

COVID restrictions and lockdowns meant that many activities needed to be held online. This included:

• Members were asked to take a photo of themselves with our National Week of Action image, with some 300 members posting their selfies.

• Online rallies and meetings were held at many individual Branches, as well as state-wide meetings in Victoria and South Australia.

• An online trivia night in the ACT.

For those Branches and Divisions lucky enough to not be in lockdown, some outdoor activities were possible:

• Campus stalls were held in the NT and on some Queensland campuses.

• Morning teas with giant jigsaws for members to puzzle over were popular on Tasmanian campuses.

Jacob Prehn, Can Seng Ooi, Michael Guerzoni, UTAS

Secure Jobs Now!

The week culminated with an online seminar entitled 'Secure Jobs Now!', attended by hundreds of members and other university staff.

The seminar heard from ACTU Secretary Sally McManus, outlining the ACTU’s Secure Jobs – Worth Fighting For campaign which has been developed in response to the increasing use of insecure work throughout the whole economy.

Unfortunately, higher education has a ‘starring’ role in the campaign, being one of the sectors worst affected by insecure employment.

NTEU members Karen Douglas, a casual academic staff member at RMIT, and Mick Piotto, a casual professional staff member at the University of South Australia, both spoke about their experiences as casual staff members, and the effects on their careers and their lives.

The details of their experiences brought a stark human dimension to the nature of insecure work. You can read their speeches on the following pages of this issue of Advocate.

Overall, our National Week of Action saw:

• 4,500 people taking action across 36 universities.

• 4.5 million Australians saw us in the media.

• 300 members took secure jobs selfies.

• 175 new members joined the Union.

As this bargaining round unfolds, we’ll be campaigning at every university in Australia for secure jobs – protected by law in new workplace Agreements.

Tim Rich, Curtin

A continuing campaign

The National Week of Action was another step in our campaign for better workplaces and better universities. To win, it’s going to take as many people as possible joining in.

Our Branches are taking a fresh look at strategies to engage with more members and university staff to build the Union’s strength in the lead-up to bargaining, so we can all support our colleagues and better the outcomes for staff at the negotiating table.

We can do this with effective member-led campaigns. Bargaining is an opportunity to achieve our vision for the sector – workplaces not built on crippling workloads, where our jobs are secure, and where the value of our work is recognised.

If you are not already a member, you can join NTEU at www.nteu.org.au/join and get involved in our campaign. ◆

Michael Evans, National Organiser (Member Engagement)

Daryl & Karen, UniSA