Fightback Candidates

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

National Councillor - General Staff

I work at the HDR Admin Centre. I’ve been a professional staff member at USyd since 2011. For all of that time, I’ve been active in organising to stop job cuts, pushing back against excessive workloads, building union membership and winning dignity and decent conditions. I have been involved in three rounds of bargaining as an active member of the Branch Committee, Campaign Committee and National Councillor. I am nominating for re-election to the Branch Committee and National Council. I have led and organised strikes, pickets, rallies, to build a staunch union branch. I was Picket Captain during the recent strikes, as well as coordinated the picket lines, and have organised, chaired and spoken at numerous meetings and rallies. 

Candidate statements: 

Branch VP - General Staff

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

National Councillor

National Councillor - General Staff

My name is Jennifer and I’m a professional staff member in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, an area of the University that has seen a LOT of change in recent years. I’m also currently on the Branch Committee and a national councillor – roles that have given me the opportunity to really speak out against the way in which our University, and universities in general, are run.

I’m eager to continue the valuable work of fighting for pay, jobs, and conditions at Sydney University. As a member of NTEU Fightback I will continue the push for strike action to show university management that the real power in the University lies with the staff. I firmly believe that strike action is the way to win our log of claims, and that we should not make concessions and trade in our hard-won conditions.

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

Branch VP - Academic

I am an Associate Professor of Marketing in the Business School. I have been a member of the NTEU for over 25 years, I am also currently a member of Branch Committee. In my time, as a teaching and research academic, I 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 also 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. As with all members of the NTEU Fightback team I believe now more than ever is the time to continue to stand up for the rights of all workers. 

Candidate statement:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

Running with NTEU Fightback, I’m a professional staff member working in External Relations; a Health & Safety Rep, I’m also on the NTEU Cases and Campaign committees. With the cost-of-living soaring, staff deserve a pay rise above inflation. It’s poor form to let hundreds of staff go while earning a $1.05 billion profit during a pandemic, essentially tossing our friends and comrades overboard. But sacrificing our hard-won pay and conditions through the form of a Jobs Protection Framework will not save our skins either. Instead, what we need is to value, invest in, and trust staff on the ground who are the heart of the University and fundamental to its success, because without them the profits made by the University will be a thing of the past. 

I’d like to be a part of a union that fights for those on the ground, unafraid to deploy our most effective tool, striking, to ensure we can achieve these things and more.

NSW Division Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Representative (elect)

USYD Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Branch Committee Member (elect)

Candidate statement:

National Councillor

I’m a proud Aboriginal man from the Awabakal Nation who has worked in the Higher Education sector since 2010 in roles focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment, retention, student support and community engagement. 

I aim to be a strong advocate of supporting real and meaningful change that impact the First Nations staff and students at our University and we need to bring Indigenous Knowing, Being and Doing into the work of NTEU.  

In my time as a member of the Branch Committee here at the University of Sydney I have led the push for enforceable targets. Cultural safety and a voice for our First Nations people and played a key part in not only pushing for the historical strike on First Nations issues, but ensuring that it had the support of our community.

Candidate statement:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

I am a staunch union member who works in the HDR Admin Centre with Alma Torlakovic. I have been an active member of the NTEU since I started at Sydney Uni in early 2016; fighting to protect our working conditions and playing a leading role in helping to stop individual performance metrics from being introduced into our department. I have argued to safeguard job security and conditions in meetings with management and have helped organise and speak at local and wider union meetings. I have consistently raised health and safety issues from air quality in the JFR building for COVID-19 safety measures. I was the local Health and Safety Rep in 2020 where I fought for the right to work from home during the ongoing pandemic. 

Candidate statements:

Branch Committee - Ordinary Member

Branch Committee - Casual Member

National Councillor

I’m a casual tutor in the Department of Philosophy within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Since 2020, I’ve been a leading member of the University of Sydney Casuals Network and the NTEU. I’ve spoken at and helped organise numerous events, all-staff meetings and rallies to advance campaigns to save casual jobs during the pandemic, resist cuts to units of study, and end wage theft and the crisis of exploitative casualisation at the University.