NTEU Fightback Sydney Uni

We need your help to make this strike as effective as possible! Here’s some things you can do:

• Talk to your co-workers about joining the union and being part of the strike.
• Attend on the day as a group.
• Help us build the strike

We’re striking for the following demands:

• For all staff:
  • A pay rise of 20%+ over 3.25 years.
  • Stop the University’s proposal to rush through change management and limit staff input.
  • Improved protections for academic and professional staff freedom of political expression.
  • Protections for staff surrounding the use of AI
• For professional staff:
  • No forced redundancies (as part of Service Excellence).
  • Equal redundancy pay with academic staff (from 2 weeks to 13 weeks).
  • Substantive professional staff positions will not be allowed to remain vacant for more than two weeks.
• For academic staff:
  • Stop the University’s proposal to introduce new academic roles which will further erode the 40:40:20 teaching-research nexus.
  • Cap the use of Education Focused Roles (EFR)
• For casual staff:
  • Make it easier for casuals to secure ongoing employment by strengthening existing conversion clauses.
  • Permanent 40:40:20 roles for casual academics – not new teaching-focused roles.
    

The full NTEU Log of Claims can be found here.

Strikes are how workers win their demands. It’s how we won the 8 hour day, the right to vote, the weekend, and its why staff at Sydney University have the best pay and conditions in the sector.

By collectively refusing to work, we place real pressure on the University – because nothing functions without our labour. The more of us on strike, and the more we strike, the more pressure we put on management to agree to our demands.

Watch & share our reel on this question:

Picket lines are about defending our strike.

The strike’s effectiveness depends on as many staff and students refusing to go onto campus, refusing to work or refusing to attend class.

The role of the picket line is to prevent the strike from being undermined and to convince others coming onto campus to not undermine the strike by going to work or to class. By standing together and making our case, we hope to convince others to reconsider their individual plans for the day and to put the collective interests of staff and students first.

The more of us on the picket line, the better we can defend the strike and the less confident others will feel to break the picket line. So please join us on the pickets from 7am on strike day!

Watch & share our reel on this question:

The University’s cost-cutting and corporate culture hurts students. We are unable to provide the standard of education and support we know our students deserve because of this. On the one hand the University charges students outrageous fees for their degrees, while on the other they cut costs by keeping pay low, understaffing our departments and making staff take on unsustainable workloads. We can’t give the best to our students in these conditions.

This will not change without serious industrial pressure being placed on the University by staff going on strike. The temporary disruption to the University campus in the long run is essential for improving the conditions and pay of staff, which in turn will improve the education, feedback and support students receive. Staff working conditions are students’ learning conditions.

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It’s simple – don’t work on a strike day! That’s the whole point. Strikes are all about collective disruption. The more of us who don’t work, the more effective our strike.

Secondly, join the picket lines! We need to defend our strike by mobilising on the day. We’ll be standing together and trying to convince others coming onto campus not to cross the picket (undermine our strike) by going to work or class. The more staff and students who show up to the picket, the more effective we are and the less confident others will be to cross the picket.

Strike days are also empowering, defiant and fun: we get to shut down the campus together and show management who really runs this place.

Like any good protest, the number of people who turn up show our strength. You’re really missing out if you’re at home by yourself rather than helping out on the day with hundreds of your colleagues!

We’ll have more information about what the day will look like soon…

You’re not alone. The cost of living crisis is hard on all of us and the financial pressures we’re facing are very real. This is exactly why we are striking: to secure the highest possible pay increase for the next three years and to ease the cost of living pressures we are facing. The cost of not striking is higher in the long term.

Outrageously, Australia’s draconian anti-strike laws (thanks to successive Labor and Liberal governments) favour employers and are designed to make it harder for workers to go on strike. This includes making it illegal for workers to be paid while on strike – which punishes us for standing up for our rights. Workers will have to fight and defeat these laws one day. But until then, we have to keep fighting for the pay and conditions we all need.

The NTEU will also be organising a strike fund to help support members in need and alleviate some of the pressure. See the NTEU Strike Fund section below for more information.

The University may try to undermine the effectiveness of our strike by encouraging staff to work from home during strike days.

This will only help the University secure an agreement more favourable to them, which will likely take pay and conditions further backwards.

It’s important that we stand together, support each other and help make the strike as effectively as possible. The best way to do that is to join the union, don’t work on strike day and join us on the pickets!

No. In fact, joining the union gives you greater protection. It indicates to management that you know your rights and have other union members backing you if you are singled out for being a union member.

Most importantly, solidarity is an important principle of the union movement. If the University gets away with victimising one staff member, the same can then be done to others. So all union members have a real responsibility and interest in standing alongside each other.

If you have further concerns, please speak to your local union rep.

Watch our reel on this question:

We appreciate all the support we can get! Here’s what you can do:

• Send this page to anyone you know who works at the University of Sydney
• Join us at the picket lines on strike days – your solidarity helps boost morale and shows we have broader support from students, other unionists and the community.
• Donate to the official NTEU Strike Fund to help support staff giving up pay to strike.
• Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for updates and share our content to help spread the word.