Victorian Division www.nteu.org.au/vic Division Officers Victorian Division Secretary: Mel Slee Division Asst Secretary: Sarah Roberts Division President: Mark Shier Division Vice-Presidents: Christian Haesemeyer (Academic), Cathy Rojas (General)
Division Staff Senior Industrial Officer: Linda Gale Division Industrial Officers: Joe Nunweek, Rob Binnie, Clare Danaher, Margaret Maloney, Serena O’Meley, Corey Rabaut, Rhidian Thomas Division Industrial Organisers: Janet Bourke, Jesse Page, Linda Cargill, Lisbeth Latham, Colin Muir, Garry Ryan Senior State Organiser: Chloe Gaul Division Organisers: Aimee Hulbert, Simon Linskill, David Willis, Rifai Abdul, Frank Gafa, Roberta Stewart, Amelia Sully (on parental leave), Cal Parsons (parental leave appointment), Ben Kunkler, Trevor Miller Campaigns & Communications Officer: Toby Cotton Admin Officer/Executive Support: Adrienne Bradley
Image (this page): Deakin staff led by Branch President Kerrie Saville protesting in response to the University’s decision to cut jobs (Alison Wynd).
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The Victorian Division represents over 10,600 members at nine public universities: Deakin University, Federation University Australia (FUA), La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University, Victoria University (VU) and two campuses of Australian Catholic University (ACU) and many TAFE sites and smaller education providers, such as William Angliss and Navitas. It is safe to say 2020 has been challenging, particularly in the Victorian Division where the state has been in prolonged lockdown. Nonetheless, the Victorian Division has continued its focus on organising – remotely as required! The Division is dedicated to building our organising capacity through grassroots campaigns, identifying and training new delegates and membership growth. Recruitment & Membership, Training and Development The Division has resourced its strategy of building organising capacity by increasing its organising team. Following a major change process, one outgoing Industrial Officer was replaced with an Organiser. The Division also experimented with appointing Member Organisers and successfully appointed one of those Member Organisers to an ongoing Organiser role.
However, there was discomfort with appointing staff on insecure contracts. This approach has therefore been abandoned. The Division has also invested considerable resources in formal training and development for our organising team through the Australian Trade Union Institute. In turn, the Organising team has conducted regular training sessions for delegates and members in organising, recruitment and campaigning. With the advent of COVID-19, these sessions were successfully moved online. The Division has also hosted online talks and seminars of general interest to the membership. COVID-19 The advent of the pandemic and its devastating impacts on student enrolment and in turn university finances put the Division under considerable pressure as we campaigned for a government support package and against redundancies and aggressive management cost-cutting measures. Campaigning for a government rescue package Despite being in lockdown, Victorian Division worked closely with the National Office to deliver a number of very successful National Days of Action to demand the Scott Morrison Government extend JobKeeper to the university sector and fill the more than $4.5 billion shortfall. The campaign included social distancing pickets of Dan Tehan and Josh Frydenberg’s offices, mass online meetings and a social
NTEU ANNUAL REPORT 2020 ◆ Victorian Division
