Right wing victory in USYD NTEU a setback

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

National Councillor - General Staff

I’m a professional staff member at the HDR Admin Centre and have been a staunch unionist for 15 years. As a leading member of the Branch Committee, Campaign Committee and National Council, I’ve played a key role in keeping management and our union leadership accountable. I've spent years supporting members: fighting to save jobs, campaigning against metrics, and advocating for WHS and Work From Home rights.

I’m a founding member of NTEU Fightback, a group of workers that want to rebuild our union.

There is an obvious crisis in our unions.

Whilst ordinary people face a cost of living crisis, our wages are declining, and our union leaders have shown no appetite to fight. In the most recent EBA campaign, more time and energy was spent arguing against strikes than organising the fight that could improve our existing pay and conditions. The lacklustre strategy of piecemeal strikes over a two-year period has left us with attacks on professional and academic staff, and a pay cut. We must not repeat this failed strategy.

I’m a socialist and member of the Palestine Action Group, helping to organise mass protests against the war in Gaza. 

If elected, I will continue this fighting spirit. 

Candidate statements: 

Branch VP - General Staff

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

I’m professional staff in Central Operations Services and an active member of Branch Committee and National Council. Recently, I’ve been centrally involved in the campaign against the restructuring Research and Education Technical Services and in supporting academic staff in the School of Medical Sciences during the academic reorganisation. I’m also a Health and Safety Representative and a leader in the Cases Committee, where I help NTEU members experiencing workplace issues. 

As a staunch unionist and member of NTEU Fightback, I led strikes to defend our pay and conditions, and fought to keep striking in the last EBA campaign. I was picket captain and helped win people over to the union. The results of the last EBA campaign were not good enough to give in and I fought to continue, especially against conceding to a real wage cut and the introduction of hundreds of teaching-focused roles. We need a union that is prepared to not just talk big but actually fight. We need a union that is not prepared to sell off conditions for a crumbs and empty promises from management. We need a union that fights and that is what myself and my colleagues in NTEU Fightback want to see. 

Candidate statements: 

Branch VP - Academic Staff

I am an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Business School. I have been a member of the NTEU for almost 30 years and in that time, as a teaching and research academic, have seen many changes in the university sector. However, nothing compares to the challenges we now face as university staff. As an educator I am concerned with the impact of staffing cuts and job insecurity on the quality of our teaching. Increased casualization over the years has increased job insecurity for many. Couple that with casual wage theft and we are faced with a situation that is untenable moving forward. 

I have previously been a member of Branch Committee and been actively involved in building and organising our strike action. We must continue actively push for our rights to be protected. We must strive to ensure we maintain a teaching research balance. It is important that Education Focused Roles do not become the norm in our sector. The university also needs to provide a culturally safe working environment for our First nations colleagues. We all deserve a workplace where our rights are protected. These are the issues I will continue to fight for.

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Casual Member

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

I’m a long-term casual academic in the Discipline of Philosophy. As a leading member of the USyd Casuals Network since 2020 and of Branch Committee since 2022, I’ve been a driving force behind campaigns against wage theft, job and course cuts, and exploitative casualisation. 

The results of the latest enterprise bargaining round reveal the urgent need for a change in strategy. Management emerged with significant wins including a pay deal that amounted to a real pay cut for workers, the entrenchment of wage theft and casualisation, an increase in education-focused roles, and the lack of enforceable First Nations employment targets. To challenge the status quo, we need a long-term strategy that refuses to make concessions to management, and that refuses to leave our most precarious workers behind. 

If elected I will continue to be a voice for precarious workers. I will also continue to advocate for increased transparency and democracy within the union. Members must be fully informed about decisions that affect their working conditions and pay, and must have genuine opportunities to participate in decision-making and debate.

A vote for NTEU Fightback is a vote for real action.

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

I am a professional staff member working in Physics. I have been an NTEU member

since I started my postgraduate studies, and an avid unionist from a young age.

I don’t think it’s controversial to say that the interests of rank-and-file workers do not

align with the interests of management. As such, I don’t think we should strive to meet management in the middle with our demands. Rather, we need to pull them as far as we possibly can to our side, because that is certainly their strategy. Each year that the university posts profits in the hundreds of millions while we get below inflation pay raises (pay cuts) is painful reminder of this fact.

During the recent bargaining round, I worked with NTEU Fightback to push for serious strike action to retain our pay and conditions. Our union leadership gave up too soon and we were left with a real wage cut, a massive expansion of “education focussed roles” and WFH clauses the management feels they can outright ignore. 

If I’m elected to the branch committee, I will relentlessly advocate for the rights of all

our members, because that is what a union is for.

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

Working in the Student Centre, I’ve seen first hand the pressure that a university run for profit puts on staff. Despite a $351 million surplus, we’re refused a pay rise that keeps up with the cost of living, made to take on greater workloads and, despite the marketing spin, Sydney *selectively* Listens to us. We’re always being asked to make sacrifices for the bottom line. Enough is enough.

In our last EA campaign, we ended up with a deal that was a real-terms pay cut and took key conditions backwards. Our strikes were too spread out and didn’t put enough pressure on management. We have to be honest about these mistakes and not repeat them.

I’m running for Branch Committee and National Council to build a different kind of union - one that doesn’t accept cuts to pay or conditions, and is serious about strike action. I’m the current Health and Safety Representative for SAS and am no stranger to standing up to management. I pushed for more strike action and against sacrificing conditions in the last strike campaign; and for our union to stand in solidarity with Palestine.

USYD staff need and deserve a better union!

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

I have been a casual worker in the history and art history departments since 2010. I have been active in both the Casuals Network and the NTEU USyd Job Security & Casuals' Rights Network. I helped organise and staff the picket lines in 2022 and 2023, winning people to the union and promoting the strike on campus.

As a member of NTEU Fightback, I believe that our union must not trade away conditions. In the last EBA round, I fought to save 40:40:20, for existing casuals to have conversion rights and for a wage rise above inflation. The union needed to take more serious strike action to win these demands. Negotiations need to be transparent and we cannot concede to vague promises from management. 

We need to escalate our disputes over workloads and wage theft. The prominent case of wage theft in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) is making little progress under current leadership. If elected I will make sure that the demands of precarious workers are at the heart of the union decision making.

I believe that unionists have a social responsibility and have been involved in anti-war and pro-Palestine activism.

Candidate statement:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

I am a staunch unionist who works in the HDR Admin Centre with Alma Torlakovic. I fight to protect our working conditions, playing a lead role in helping to stop individual performance metrics from being introduced in our department. 

During the 2020 ‘crisis’ in higher education, I campaigned to defeat the highly controversial ‘Jobs Protection Framework’; an effective wage-cutting deal thought up by our national leadership. I played an active role in building the last EBA’s strike campaign, fighting for job security and a wage-rise above inflation. 

The last EBA campaign strategy that stretched two years was ineffective and must not be repeated. Our union must be prepared to organise serious strike action, be transparent in negotiations, and never relinquish our hard-won conditions and pay. 

I care about social justice issues beyond the workplace, organising staff contingents to rallies on and off campus for various issues: climate change, education, First Nations rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and in solidarity with Palestine.

I will fight for the union to be a strong force on a national level. I am running with NTEU Fightback because it is the only group of activists who have a strong stance of ‘no concessions’ on wages and conditions.