I am running VP Academic of the NTEU University of Melbourne branch to continue the work I have done to secure better employment conditions at our university. In my role as an elected ordinary member of the branch committee from 2021-2024, I lobbied hard to include in our recent EBA log of claims better provisions for gender equity, academic freedom, and workloads, issues that have recently become even more acute. My advocacy on branch won us some of the best provisions for parental leave and reduced barriers for people with caring responsibilities in the sector.

I’ve worked at the University of Melbourne in multiple roles for 17 years, first in both casual academic and professional roles both during and after completing my PhD studies. For the past 7 years, I have been a continuing academic in the Faculty of Arts. In my time, I’ve seen enormous changes to operations of academic teaching and research and the implications that has on working conditions for both academic and professional staff.

In spite of the historic gains made in the last round of bargaining, many threats to conditions remain. Workload demands have become untenable. Academic freedom is under threat. I am running for VP Academic as I want to help our branch become better equipped to anticipate and resist these threats to our working conditions, taking more action to collect data on working conditions to prepare for the next bargaining round.

I am an experienced union activist and branch committee member, who is running for the Vice President Academic staff role on branch committee. Currently I’m the Acting Branch Vice President (Academic Staff), after having previously served on the Branch Committee as the Insecure Worker (Casual and Fixed Term) Representative. Last year I was one of the Co-Chairs of the Branch’s Strike Committee, planning our industrial campaign. I originally became an NTEU delegate in 2019 as part of the Casuals Wage Theft Campaign and played a role in the Casuals Network.

I’m now an Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy – a continuing “Education Focused” role – after being converted at the end of last year from a fixed-term Periodic position. Before that I worked as a casual for five years across four different universities, including UniMelb.

I’ve seen and personally experienced how transformative union organising can be within the workplace. We can build a better University for both staff and students, and I believe that my experience as both a longtime local workplace delegate and member of the UniMelb Branch leadership team will be best utilised in the Branch Vice President (Academic) position.

There are three main things to focuse on for the University of Melbourne Branch of the NTEU:

(1) enforcing the new conditions that we won at the last round of bargaining;

(2) building a more democratic union that is representative of all staff at the university; and

(3) growing our union density and organising infrastructure in preparation for the next round of bargaining.

These three goals are best pursued together. By identifying issues in workplaces and enforcing our conditions (1) we can bring more people into the union both as members and activists (2) and grow our union power (3). The Casuals Wage Theft campaign is a good example of this. NTEU branches normally lose members between bargaining rounds, whereas the UniMelb Branch grew by hundreds, along with gaining a network of experienced activists and delegates. This was a big factor in our ability to take more effective industrial action and win better conditions in the last round of bargaining.