UPDATE: Our motion for a Strike in Week 3 was blocked by Rank and File Action (RAFA) and Renewal, who mobilised to support the Branch Committee motion to avoid the strike. Watch our summary reel:
“To strike in week 3, or not to strike?” This question will be posed to NTEU members at the Tuesday 21 July meeting.
NTEU Fightback is moving a motion to strike on Thursday 20 August (Week 3):
24 hour strike in week 3 and stop work meeting
The University of Sydney branch of the NTEU notes:
- Our pay has not kept up with the cost of living. We have lost tens of thousands relative to inflation since 2021.
- Management haven’t comitted to any of our claims, including our pay claim.
- Instead, management are undermining workloads through new academic roles, reducing staff input in change proposals; and have rejected equal redundancy payments for professional staff.
- We must apply maximum pressure on the University to win our demands.
96% of staff supported work stoppages / strikes, and 70% supported indefinite stoppages in our PAB.
We will:
- Strike / stop work for 24 hours on Thursday 20 August (Week 3)
- Hold a 2 hour all-members stop work meeting in Week 1 to decide on escalating our industrial action.
- Promote the strike, recruit new members to the NTEU and encourage active participation in our strikes.
Moved by: Alma Torlakovic
Seconded: Vinil Kumar
In response, the Branch Committee is moving an alternative motion to “strategically” hold off on strike action, which is being moved first. This is the same failed “strategy” as our last EA round.
In 2022-23, spreading our strikes thin (9 days over 2 years) did not put any serious pressure on management. The strategy of avoiding strikes in the hopes that management would see the light resulted in agreement with a pay rise below inflation (ie. a real terms pay cut), and that undermined 40:40:20 through the introduction of EFRs, compromised priority, entrenched wage theft and only got us token concessions and empty promises. Read more here.
We can’t afford to delay action any longer, nor pull our punches. Management has not agreed to any of our demands and instead have proposed more attacks on academic workloads and staff consultation during change proposals. We need to apply maximum pressure to stop these measures and push for our demands. We can’t afford to have our pay and conditions go back any further.
Despite 96% of members voting for strike action in our PAB, our branch leadership has refused to support the call for action and flagged its willingness to cancel strikes. Worse than just being unwilling to fight themselves, they are actively obstructing the rest of us from doing so.
If you agree with the need to strike, please register your support for the motion and join us at the meeting on Tuesday 21 July!
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