Small steps forward in NTEU jobs campaign
After a drawn-out Fair Work Commission hearing found in their favour, NTEU members at La Trobe University have again rallied in opposition to massive job cuts. The university’s Funding Future Ready strategy is its rationale for cutting $65 million in spending, largely by sacking up to 350 staff.
In its 9 September ruling, the commission found that the university did not consult properly with the union and that the imposition of forced redundancies is inconsistent with its job security obligations.
The decision prevents the university from implementing proposed changes “until the employees and the NTEU have an opportunity to respond” to the strategy. Shamelessly, the vice-chancellor, John Dewar, emailed all staff after the decision claiming that the union had been “ordered” to provide feedback.
On 23 September, close to 100 staff marched to Dewar’s office. A “feedback” banner, painted by the union campaign committee, was delivered. The banner was covered in the signatures of staff and students opposed to the cuts. Unsurprisingly, Dewar was “unavailable” to meet staff, but a union delegation was allowed into the administration building, which had been under lockdown during the rally.
University of Melbourne
More than 100 staff and students gathered outside the University of Melbourne administration building on 24 September to protest major job losses. Under the university’s Business Improvement Program, 500 – one in five – general staff will be sacked.
The mood at the protest reflected the deep bitterness felt across campus. After an NTEU delegation went in to meet the vice-chancellor, the crowd marched around the building chanting “Glyn Davis: unsatisfactory!” and “Sack Glyn Davis, not librarians.”
Resentment turned to outrage in the week preceding the protest. After months of assurances that there would be no “spill and fill”, management announced on 17 September that more than 2,000 staff would need to reapply for jobs. Hundreds who were initially told that their jobs were safe found out days later that this was a mistake.
Staff anger has also found expression at management’s massive town hall-style staff meetings. These previously polite affairs are increasingly being disrupted from the floor by hostile questioning and cat calls.
The preparedness of staff to stand up to senior managers reveals that there is some potential for this long passive workforce to be organised. If staff are to look to the NTEU, however, the union will need to provide a far more decisive lead and more resources in the fight than it has to date.
