Volume 3, Number 1, July 2011
Northern Cavalry Arrives TEU National Women’s Officer, Suzanne McNabb, has graciously agreed to spend two days a week for the next month or four based out of TEU House assisting our local Organisers with the TEU workload generated by the post-earthquake environment, ongoing Change Proposals, subsequent restructuring potential and such things as Delegate Training. The branch appreciates the support given by our National Office and their recognition of the current industrial climate down south. Suzanne will be known to some Canterbury University members from her earlier involvement here particularly during the last Arts restructuring exercise. She has already organised and run a well-attended Delegates’ training course for our local Reps and Branch Committee. Sue will also be advocating for our cleaner members at Campus Living Villages to renew their Collective Employment Agreement.
PBRF
From the Branch President, Megan Clayton Although this is the first newsletter of the year, the events that precede it have made it among the busiest for our members’ communication. The earthquakes and their aftermath have made email the mainstay of branch notices for some time now, and I would like sincerely to thank all the members who have participated in the information gathering the branch has done since February. Our challenges exist on two fronts now: not only the ongoing processes of review and restructuring in which TEU continues to engage in order to advocate for its members, but also threat of the loss of of government funding support post-2012 for our earthquake-affected institution. All this occurs during a time when members’ ability to do their work has, like people all over the region, been interrupted in the most profound and wide-reaching of ways. The union slogan of Tū Kotahi has had applications anticipated by few.
TEU National President Sandra Grey debates the issues associated with the PBRF round and the effect of the earthquake on Canterbury academic members. Biting their tongues as they await an opportunity to get their two cents in are TEU Academic representatives Warwick Anderson and Jack Heinemann. The concerns TEU has with the PBRF round are how best to provide support and protection for our academic members affected by the 2010-11 earthquakes in a manner that both indicates with reasonable accuracy the effects suffered, does not cause undue hardship to carry out, and above all supports equitable outcomes for members.
This newsletter is an attempt to bring some of the colour and even humour of branch business to the attention of members. The 2011 branch committee has been as far flung by the earthquakes as the wider membership, but has nonetheless managed to complete the branch training goals we set ourselves in mid-February, with the delay of a few months.
The process of consultation, lobbying and information sharing has been complex but has had the effect of strengthening the connections between the branch and national office (which has prepared TEU submissions to TEC). It has also seen significant cooperation between the union and the university in taking a position to the the Tertiary Education Commission that best represents the regional situation.
Your organisers and representatives remain available to you as ever. Please use the contact information on the final page of the newsletter if you have any questions or queries about matters industrial, professional or political.
From the Branch Photo Album
Ripeka Tamanui-Hurunui braves her chilly tent office after the February visit of ‘Old Bucky’ rendered many campus offices uninhabitable. In addition to her role as Māori Student Advisor, Ripeka is the TEU Māori General Staff representative
Green Member of Parliament David Clendon and his Ngāpuhi work bag that so impressed TEU Rep and child of the North Jo Diamond. David met with Canterbury TEU reps recently to discuss Government (lack of) funding in tertiary education, the impact of the earthquakes on the University and our members and changes to industrial legislation.
The lonely vigil of a bizarre carpark protest. Some members go to a lot of trouble and effort to make their views known. In the finest traditions of ‘Critic & Conscience’ we found this mute statement: “RIP - Education” emblazoned on a plastic headstone amid a mound of fresh-dug loam. No one at TEU House was game enough to prod about in the soil and uncover who or what lay beneath… perhaps the stripped skeleton of academic aspiration?
Aotahi AdministratorExtraordinaire Christine Deeming bedecked in her colourful korowai at her recent graduation ceremony.
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News from the Polytechnics
General Staff Day 2011
Christchurch Polytechnic bargaining is underway with many clawbacks tabled by the employer. They include employer control over four weeks of Discretionary Leave that members use at their discretion after the first two of years of employment. This is in addition to their annual leave entitlements. The other major clawback would dictate the average weekly duty time at 40 hours per week instead of the current provisions that allow the employer to require 34 or 36 hours duty per week and being a salaried employee where most members work well in excess of the hours required. Tai Poutini Polytechnic have just learned that their CEO’s five-year contract is not being renewed by their Governing Council. (They typically are renewed for at least a second term.) We believe this is a signal from the Minister about how Government views the number of ITPs in the Tertiary Sector. Bargaining is also underway at this Institute. The employer claim was a brand new simple and minimal document that provided no protections for our members. We have encouraged them to table claims that modify our current CA rather than attempt a clean sweep. Thankfully there was agreement to do so. We continue bargaining in the second week of July. Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology bargaining is about to get underway at the beginning of August. We are expecting significant changes to be tabled by the employer. It remains one of the South Island Regional ITPs that is attempting to forge closer alliances with Otago, Southland Aoraki and Tai Poutini Polytechnics.
Regardless of the current high workloads and pressures on Committee and Orgs, the Branch decided it should still go ahead with recognising the supportive principles of General Staff Day, albeit at a lower level of activity than in previous years. Gaby’s delectable soup selections and Paul’s superbly buttered slabs of bread roll provided the substance behind the many General Staff members who took the opportunity to call into TEU House. The day is targeted at publicly recognising the key and supportive role General staff play in the success of a University, and based on the theory that behind excellent Academics there are excellent General staff. TEU was proud to see the many faces, some not until then known to us, who called in and we hope to see them and others again soon. We also note that the Deputy Vice Chancellor Ian Town also made the effort to call in and record his appreciation of General Staff contribution in person.
Small PTEs such as PEETO, Design and Arts College and Christchurch Academy are all operating in different locations around the city until, for the former two, their premises in the Central City Red Zone are assessed. The Academy is still operating from part of its premises in Aberdeen St whilst repairs are undertaken in the Manchester St Campus. The students these members are dealing with have had significant impacts on their home living situations as well.
Says it all, really... 3
TEU Treaty Training – Te Tiriti o Waitangi
L to R: Presenter Jim Anglem, Mere Skerrett (College of Education), Dave Lane (Library), Anne-Marie Brady (College of Arts), Di Gordon-Burns (College of Education), Gaby Moore (TEU Organiser), and Jennifer Middendorf (College of Arts).
Campus Living Campus Living Village’s negotiations are due to start in July. We understand well-respected Manager Darel Hall has been promoted and a new manager appointed. Darel has proven an asset to both TEU and CLV and will be genuinely missed. In addition to a senior restructuring of the company CLV have raised a claim in regards to consolidating their Massey University CLV site Collective into a single national Collective. The Service & Food Workers will be the other party.
L to R Campus Living Cleaner Delegates Veronica Weeks and Adrienne Croton, Arts’ Christian Long, VP Jennifer Middendorf, with TEU Org Gaby Moore and President Megan Clayton.
Collective Employment Agreements: Variations settled and ratification underway With our Collective Agreements having a threeyear term (expiry June 2012) the TEU and the other University unions negotiated variations to the wording of our Agreements. The next wage increase (due in January 2012) will be based on the cost of living increase for the September quarter and is looking like 5+%, for which the University has already budgeted. While there were no monetary-based claims, positive improvements include supporting TEU Māori and Pasifika delegates’ recognition, reinforcing the pre-2007 Academic Staff retirement scheme, Union rights clauses, a working party on coverage clauses with a view to trying to combine them into only two Collective Agreements rather than the current five, meaningful investigation and debate into Campus gender equity, fixing errors/wording within current agreements, and a commitment to try and address the negative issues associated with Fixed Term Agreements.
It’s all in the way you say it We have had the terms “redundancy”, “downsizing”, “severance”, “employee superfluity”, “an embarrassment of personnel riches, “payroll padding”, and now we have VC Rod Carr’s latest quote from the University Council Minutes “…That up to 50 staff redundancies out of 3000 staff in any year was a small level of staff turnover and represented a philosophy of disinvesting to reinvest…” We are sure all those ex-employees now feel a whole lot better seeing as they are simply interest by-products of an investment philosophy.
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Co-location and centralisation: the return of the repressed for administrators TEU was disappointed once again to receive a change proposal, this time from the College of Education, in which the reduction of administrative functions, together with their centralisation into a co-located hub, was put forward as a source of efficiency for the college. For the branch, if not the individual members, this is a case of déja-vû. Co-location belies the specialisation of administrative work within the university, and in particular the ways in which programme and service adminstrators provide tailored and wide-ranging support for particular programme needs. Despite working in lower-banded roles with increasingly generic position descriptions, administrators across the university possess knowledge and skills that have depth as well as breadth, freeing other colleagues to do their own work efficiently. The TEU remains sceptical of arguments as to the fungibility of administrative roles and will continue to argue for the necessity of the employer’s recognition of the specificity of this work.
Who can join TEU? From time to time the organisers and senior representatives hear the persistent rumour that heads of departments/schools and other staff who perform line management roles cannot join the union. This is incorrect. The only staff member of the university who cannot join the TEU is the ViceChancellor: the employer. Senior managers, middle managers, staff on individual employment agreements, staff on fixed-term agreements, casual staff, part-time staff, academic year-only staff, post-docs, postgrads and undergraduates who work at the university … all can join. So if you know of a colleague who would like to join but thinks they are ineligible, then you can advise them of the truth: that they can sign up at http://teu.ac.nz/join or with a printed membership form which can be sent to them via the internal mail (email tertiaryunion@canterbury.ac.nz to request a form). There are significant discounts for low-income members and your colleagues can use http://teu.ac.nz/join/subscriptions to calculate what their fees might be.
Tū Kotahi: the TEU waiata For use on all occasions! Tū Kotahi (Stand as one) Tū Kaha (Stand strong) Tātou tātou e (Everyone together) Ngā piki; ngā heke (In joy and sadness) Tū Kotahi e (Let’s stand together) The TEU national website has links to audio recordings of the waiata for your practising convenience. The 2009 version is at: http://teu.ac.nz/2009/07/tu-kotahi and you can listen to the 2010 version sung by members of Te Uepū (among whose voices some Canterbury branch reps are audible) here: http://teu.posterous.com/tu-kotahi
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Māori & Pasifika - Positive aspects of CEA currently being ratified The following clauses, provided the terms of settlement are ratified by members, will signal a most positive outcome for University and TEU negotiators. Firmly pushed by the TEU, the employer’s willingness to so strongly acknowledge their obligations and commitments in these two areas bodes well for future working relationships with Māori and Pasifika members. All parties are to be congratulated. “The parties affirm the principle of according high priority to maintaining and advancing a Te Tiriti o Waitangi partnership at all levels within the University. In regards to Te Tiriti’s application to the principles underlying Clause [H.10/H.9], the parties agree that aspects of this objective can be best attained by actively acknowledging and effectively encouraging the key role played at TEU member level, and recognising the special and cultural role, of the Te Toi Ahurangi/Te Uēpu representative. The Employer will support paid participation of a Te Toi Ahurangi/Te Uēpu representative in branch and related activity of the union within and beyond the workplace. The TEU will advise the Employer (in particular, the Senior Management Team and PVCs) of the name and occupation of the approved representative. The TEU will also consult with, and provide prior notice to, the Employer in regards to any meetings or demands that require the input and/or presence of the TEU Māori representative. The Employer will support paid participation of a nominated Pasifika representative in branch and related activity of the union within and beyond the workplace as a means of acknowledging and effectively encouraging the key role played at TEU member level, and recognising their special Pasifika cultural role. The TEU will advise the Employer (in particular, the Senior Management Team and PVCs) of the name and occupation of the approved representative. The TEU will also consult with, and provide prior notice to, the Employer in regards to any meetings or demands that require the input and/or presence of the TEU Pasifika representative.”
TEU Delegate Training Underway Some 15 TEU representatives undertook a day’s training under the expert tuition of Suzanne McNabb. All reports have been very positive, even from the ‘old stagers’ who all indicated that that in addition to learning some valuable skills, they had been reinvigorated by the enthusiasm of the newer, and sometimes younger, delegates attending.
Consultation as some would like to see it...
L to R: Pasifika General Staff rep Marion McNeill, with cleaner Delegates Kay Duncan and Kelly EllmersBrady
Contact your organisers UC Members
ITP Sector Gabrielle Moore 021 190 2396 Extension 6485 tertiaryunion@canterbury.ac.nz
UC TEU Branch Officers President Megan Clayton Bridging Programmes Extension 4931
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
Vice-President
Secretary/Treasurer
Jennifer Middendorf School of Humanities Extension 6212
Tim O’Sullivan Central Library Lending Services Extension 8826
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