The first strike of Sydney University staff in our new enterprise agreement campaign was a banger. The campus was a ghost town, with very few people even attempting to enter. Services were disrupted all over because significant numbers of staff were on strike or “absent” in solidarity. All the libraries closed for the day, and classes were cancelled or rescheduled.
The picket line was well-attended, jubilant and colourful. About 600 staff and students set up pickets around campus entrances from 7am. Between chanting classic union slogans, talking to passersby and arguing with people to turn around and not work today, we found time to sing and dance.
By far the most popular song of the day was “9 to 5”, by Dolly Parton. It’s just what a striking worker wants to hear, and you gotta admit, it’s contagious:
Working 9 to 5, what a way to make a living
Barely getting by, it’s all taking and no giving
They just use your mind, and they never give you credit
It’s enough to drive you crazy if you let it (but you won’t let it)
Parton’s song sums up exactly how we’re feeling at the moment, barely able to keep up with rent, mortgages and bills. With all the added mental and physical stress of counting every dime to make ends meet, we’re somehow still expected to perform our jobs to a high standard. And accept that management doesn’t really care for our lives or opinions.
The collective solidarity at the pickets was a natural antidote to the everyday experience of being at work. You look around the campus and see that nothing is moving without us, and suddenly, we don’t feel so disposable.
Staff brought their own placards, and food to share. We spent the day sharing stories and reasons for why we’re on strike. At the Parramatta Road main gate picket, we played a fun guessing game we dubbed “The Price is Outrageous!” to highlight the cost-of-living crisis.
An all-in rally culminated outside the vice-chancellor’s administration building with more chanting and speeches.
The strike was for 24 hours, and we will need many more if we are to win. NTEU Fightback, a rank-and-file group within the National Tertiary Education Union, argues that regular and well-planned strikes are the only effective tool our side has.
Management has a suite of proposed attacks on our conditions. They want to make it easier to push through redundancies. They want to deploy AI, threatening job security, the quality of our jobs, and the education and services we provide. And they want us to trust that they’ll do so on an ethical basis with staff rights at heart.
They won’t commit to serious action on de-casualisation, instead proposing to introduce more teaching-focused roles that break the teaching-research nexus.
The union has a lot to win as well. We are seeking a 20 percent pay rise (notably, we initially voted for 25 percent, but this was quashed by our own national office). We want recognition that staff wages have gone backwards by tens of thousands since 2021 due to sub-inflation pay rises. We are still pressuring management to commit to enforceable targets for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, improved disability rights, an academic workload allocation policy based on how much time the work actually takes, intellectual freedom, and an increase in severance pay for professional staff.
Alma Torlakovic is a member of the NTEU branch committee, the NTEU national council and is the NSW Socialists candidate for Granville in the March 2027 state election.
