October Strike Update #4

Day #4 Wrap Up

We started the day on Monash Road again for a much warmer morning on the picket lines.

Staff at the MGSE, Melbourne Law School and the Melbourne School of Global Population and Health continue to picket their areas, using the strike to raise the visibility of the union.

Members in Student Services too have been active picketers throughout the week. Yesterday their strike action led to wait times at the Stop 1 Contact Centre stretching out to an hour, and up to 6 hours for students opting for a call-back. Student Services workshops have also been canceled, and the backlog of enquiries grows every day.

After the picket wound up for the morning, around 80 people attended a forum with speakers drawing lessons from major UK and US strikes in higher education. Speakers took us through the recent nationwide marking ban in the UK; the extraordinary 48,000-strong University of California (UC) strike last year and its messy but important precursor, the 2019-20 UC Santa Cruz wildcat; and the recent prolonged strike at University of Michigan which has just scored an impressive win (including an 80% wage rise for low paid grad student teachers).
We have plenty to learn and discuss through in coming days and weeks from our experience of a second week on strike. Drawing on the experience of strikers in other countries who have achieved the sort of breakthrough we’re seeking is one important way to enrich that discussion.

The Community Union Defence League once again provided tea, coffee and lunch to strikers, which was followed by a rally at University Square.

Ruby Healer, union member in Scholarly Services spoke on the impact of the strike,

"Management would like us to think what we’re demanding is unreasonable. They’d like us to think we have to put up with business as usual at this university.
Management want to keep “business as usual” going and keep the money flowing.
Well, more than 500 tutorials canceled is not business as usual.
Six hundred union members crashing Duncans roadshow on Monday is not business as usual.
Pickets on three major campus entrances is not business as usual.
The challenge for us now is to keep our nerve. This week has been brilliant but it can’t be and won’t be our last move."

Guillaume, a post-doc from Mathematics spoke to the decision of Subject Coordinators to replace canceled tutorials this week with worksheets for students to "self-study,"

"This is a slap in the face for both staff and students. For us, it shows how little the university thinks of us.
They think they can replace us with worksheets!
For students, it shows them how little the university cares about their education.
They consider worksheets to be adequate replacements for an actual tutorial.
"World-class education," really?"

We then marched down Swanston Street to meet our colleagues from RMIT who began their own 1.5 day strike from Thursday afternoon.

It was an energising and inspiring end to the day to unite with our RMIT comrades in our shared struggle over the future of higher education, and demands for decent workloads, job security and fair wages.

Solidarity turned out to be a running theme! Today the NTEU also received a statement of support from members of the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association.

"Our tertiary education sector has been undermined by decades of deliberate under-resourcing, where the business model of the sector is based on the exploitation of vulnerable staff through insecure work, creating one of the most precarious industries to work in today.
Our wealthiest and most prestigious institutions have been found guilty of wage theft while their Vice Chancellors earn seven-figure salaries. These figures are far greater than the pay of politicians and VCs around the world with many of the senior executive staff making high six-figure salaries.
This staggering pay discrepancy comes at a time when Universities are crying poor. Nearly all Universities have cut staff through forced redundancies claiming that essential teaching, research and administration staff must bear the brunt for a top-heavy executive that blames the workers for the crisis they created.
This, in turn, diminishes teaching, research and learning outcomes and erodes the collective good of public education. The attacks on all levels of public education undermines the social fabric upon which we all rely.
As the NTEU says, “staff working conditions are student learning conditions”, just as Allied Health working conditions are critical to patient outcomes. The best working conditions are therefore vital for those tertiary educators shaping the future Allied Health workforce.
VAHPA stands in solidarity with NTEU members and their ongoing struggle and strike action. These strikes are a critical part of the industrial process and show what is possible when an immense collective voice demands dignity."

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