Volume 2, Number 4, May 2010
From the Branch President, Megan Clayton From summer into winter, members are experiencing the bitter continuity of a change process that is simultaneously rapid and drawn out. The most recent Learning Resources Change Proposal can be viewed at http://teucanterbury.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/learning-resources-changeproposal-document-26-april-2010-teu-copy.pdf.
UC Change Thermometer
Many members-at-large have expressed the opinion that the scale and reach of this proposal is a last straw. For TEU representatives and organisers, it represents the escalation of a process that has occurred within the law, but at the expense of members’ collegiality, the continuity of our institutional knowledge and, for many, continuing employment. What can you do? Members need not be hide-bound by the requirement that only directly affected staff can submit: consider preparing a response for submission via the TEU that outlines how your area of work will be affected by the proposed changes. This is an option that has been taken up with success by members in previous change proposals under Project STAR. Your collegial and professional networks should know of the scale and range of the changes proposed in the current round (as with rounds previous). The university does not function solely in silos; we are connected to one another by the work we do across management areas as well as within our own departments, schools and service units. With which colleagues, university-wide, do you share a vested interest in any aspect of the present structures? Your TEU representatives facilitating the submissions process on your behalf can advise on editorial and industrial strategy when it comes to submissions, and can also facilitate any meetings you may wish to have with the appropriate university representatives, either individually, in small groups or on a larger scale. The employer remains committed to the legal requirements around the change process and the TEU must also abide by these. While this can limit our range of response it can also facilitate engagement in a variety of forms. Your representatives are here to help develop any ideas you have. It’s not just time to participate, however, but time to protest. The words below from a recent media release reflect the members’ fundamental opposition to the rapid attrition of our labour force and the work that we do. Let’s use them in the coming weeks to focus our determination and our solidarity. Tū kotahi. The Tertiary Education Union has represented its members throughout the submissions process associated with the multiple change proposals under Project STAR. It has worked not only in defence of members' positions but also of members' own vision for the university. Its views are informed by the deep expertise and experience of its members, from new staff who have joined the university from other institutions to those who have served the Canterbury community for many decades. It is the view of the union that the labour force of a large public institution such as the University of Canterbury is an asset, not a liability, and that positive outcomes for the future are best achieved by treating it as such.
‘Project STAR – “Staff to Axe Roster”?’
‘My vision and specific strategies to fulfil my vision have been explained in detail in the STAR (Superior Teaching, Advanced Research) Projects 10 on my homepage’ – Professor Oh Yeon-Cheon, Seoul National University Presidential Candidate, initiator of another Project STAR. It’s everywhere!
Redundancies:
67
Redeployments: 0 Additional redundancies proposed: 87
Our thermometer runneth over!
‘This is rapidly leading to a general coarsening of life at our university.’
Annihilating Administrators Once again, the VC has shown his intention to “annihilate administrators” (yes, he really did say that, in conversation with the TEU), with 14 administrators under the gun in the Learning Resources change proposal. And the annihilation is set to continue all year, as Project STAR morphs into Star Plus and turns its deadly gaze on the Colleges. Co-location and economies of scale are the justifications used for these drastic cuts, but how can co-location make up for the huge amount of specialised institutional knowledge which will walk out the door with the staff deemed redundant? We all know what the outcome will be: the efficient service we’ve come to expect whenever we pick up the phone to a service unit, or to a College, School or Departmental office, will be a thing of the past. Instead of talking to a specialised administrator with everything in her (or occasionally his!) department at her fingertips, we’ll get an overworked member of a generalised admin team, thinly stretched over many areas and unable to focus properly on any of them. She’ll no longer have the specialised knowledge to allow her to efficiently answer your query herself, or even to know who best to pass you on to. So expect to play a lot of phone tag, and to spend a lot of time being passed from extension to extension trying to find someone who can answer your question (if such a person actually exists – it’s not only among the administrators where we’re losing vast swathes of institutional knowledge), wasting your and everyone else’s time along the way. Expect too to experience a generally lower level of service from everyone else in the service units, because they’ll all be too busy trying to do their own administration now that they no longer have sufficient administrative support, so they’ll have less time to do their real work. And academics can forget about concentrating on producing PBRF outputs – they’ll be too busy trying to fix the photocopier and typing up the minutes of meetings. Supporting teaching and research? Yeah, right.
Overheard at the Chopper Top
“…and thus dear staff we have stumbled upon the formula for understanding the motivation behind my change proposals.”
Update your PD STAR Plus is coming and it’s time for general staff in the colleges to check your position descriptions, as these will be a significant source of information for the employer about your work. Don’t wait for PD&R: ask your line manager or your HR officer for a copy of your PD and check carefully that your work is accurately reflected in it – particularly if you have a generic PD. Then communicate your findings to your line manager and HR officer and copy TEU into the correspondence. We want to do everything possible to make sure that our members’ roles are accurately reflected in the review process.
Mixed messages? Members who have read the latest number of the University’s Chronicle will have seen amongst the photos the faces of two current library staff who face the disestablishment of their roles under the current change proposal. Why is their work of sufficient significance to grace the university’s bulletin of public record and thus promote the university’s achievements, but not be retained by the university as employer?
Contact your organisers University of Canterbury Gabrielle Moore 021 190 2396 extension 6485 tertiaryunion@canterbury.ac.nz
Other Tertiary Providers Paul Corliss 021 859 129 extension 6288 paul.corliss@teu.ac.nz
Phil Dodds 027 44 99 422 extension 6768 phil.dodds@teu.ac.nz
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