The right ran on a platform arguing for fewer strikes, decrying social justice issues as divisive, and denigrating open debate within the union.

12 September 2024

After a successful push to wind up our industrial campaign and accept serious concessions in the new EA, the right-wing grouping within the Sydney University NTEU has regained control of the union after the 2024 branch elections. 

The right’s campaign, branded “Renewal”, ran on a platform arguing for fewer strikes, decrying social justice issues as divisive, and denigrating open debate within the union. Members of this grouping have argued the union should be less oppositional to management, opposed industrial action, dismissed the seriousness of wage theft and job security for casuals, and vocally opposed the union supporting Palestine. Largely represented by well-off professors and senior managers, Renewal mobilised their base to wind up the last EA campaign and have done so again these elections to secure exactly half of the Branch Committee, along with the Branch Presidency. 

The right have won these positions after a campaign in which they claimed it’s possible to deliver results for members while avoiding serious industrial action and serious debate in the branch. Things aren’t going to turn out like that, however. With university budgets being squeezed ever-tighter, the attacks are not going to relent. In fact, quite the contrary: in the coming years, the union will need to be fighting attacks on all fronts. 

How the carpet was rolled out for the right

Over the past two years, the right’s growing influence within the NTEU has been assisted by the union’s moderate wing, Rank and File Action (RAFA), who have now lost control of the Branch Executive. RAFA only retained the position of Vice President (Academic) with Fightback’s preferences, despite themselves refusing to preference Fightback candidates against the right. It is disappointing that their own election analysis continues their hostility to the left, largely avoiding criticism of the right’s conservative vision for the union and any honest reflection on their own practice. RAFA have routinely presented Renewal as a "centre" faction and committed to working with them, even though Renewal have led right-wing opposition to strikes and advocated for conciliating with (rather than taking a stand against) management. 

Working with the right is nothing new for RAFA. For years, they have given ground to the right’s agenda within the union, leading to the current situation. RAFA and Renewal (formerly “Thrive”) made up the Bargaining Team during the EA campaign, working together to celebrate minor “important wins” in negotiations while most of the extensive log of claims endorsed by members was abandoned. While RAFA maintained a publicly pro-strike posture, in practice they allowed the leaching of momentum from our industrial campaign. They obstructed and watered down Fightback’s proposals for longer strikes, and repeatedly delayed calling strike action until there was insufficient time to effectively mobilise members. RAFA worked with the right to promote work bans in place of strikes in late 2022 (a strategy which ultimately went nowhere), and voted with the right to cancel the strike on 29 March 2023. 

As NTEU Fightback argued at the time, a campaign that dispersed nine days of strike action over two years was unable to adequately put pressure on management, leading most claims (including a real pay rise) to be abandoned. The result was an EA that took pay and conditions backwards and contained serious setbacks for every part of the workforce. To save face, RAFA and the right presented the new EA as a “benchmark” agreement. But a regressive agreement sold as a “best in sector” outcome can only lead to disorientation, an element of demoralisation and lowering the bar of what seems possible. Management has also been emboldened to push further attacks in recent months (including multiple restructures and the Campus Access Policy).

The results for the left overall reflect the different context of this election. Last election fell in the opening months of our strike campaign, meaning that NTEU Fightback’s arguments for a more combative union could find a wider hearing. In a situation of defeat, demoralisation and pessimism, the space for such arguments is more limited. This, combined with a very determined and well-resourced campaign by the right, meant that we’re back to one Fightback member on BC and NC. It’s also little wonder that RAFA’s election strategy of overstating the gains of the EA and their role in achieving these “wins” failed to inspire a campaign that could repel the right. The end result is that they have lost the presidency and conceded the union to the right.

The election outcome is concerning given the University has announced job cuts and hiring freezes heading into 2025, and another EA campaign is due to begin in 2026. What’s needed is a union willing to step up the fight against University management, not one which accepts and echoes management’s arguments to union members. We need a fighting union to defend and improve the pay and conditions of USYD staff.

The need to rebuild a principled left in the union

NTEU Fightback is proud of the role we have played over the last four years. On Branch Committee, our members have maintained a principled opposition to pay cuts and the sacrificing of hard won conditions. We pushed for transparency in bargaining, for greater membership involvement, and for a serious campaign of strikes which could win our demands. It was our members who initiated the campaign to increase our wage claim to above inflation, and maintained this fight until the very end.

We were the only faction to consistently vote in support of First Nations matters, including the need to meet and exceed 3.8% employment targets and proposing a First Nations focused strike in 2022. This strike was initially not supported by numerous members of RAFA and Renewal. 

Moreover, we were the only faction to oppose the terms of the new EA for casuals. Far from the "win" casuals were promised, the new EA has led to entrenchment of wage theft and casualisation. Fightback was the only faction to fight for automatic conversion and for pay for all hours worked for casuals, a demand that RAFA labelled "utopian" and falsely claimed had never been in the Log of Claims. The sell-out of casuals - as RAFA note in their statement - has led to the demoralisation of this sector of the membership, and to the halving of casual representation on Branch Committee.

NTEU Fightback will continue to fight for a principled approach to unionism within the Branch Committee, and in the branch more broadly. We remain committed to fighting for the kind of union staff at Sydney Uni need and deserve.

We’re under no illusions about the task in front of us in building the sort of industrial action we need, and the sort of union which can organise this. This task has just been made harder by the electoral success of the right. But how things play out in practice has at least as much to do with organising in the workplace as it does with election results.

To keep the right wing union leaders and their moderate apologists accountable, we need to rebuild a principled left in the union. 

Being left wing means not accepting management’s arguments around wage cuts, changes to our conditions or job cuts, nor being an apologist for those who do. It means building the confidence and collective power of union members, not sidelining them to appease management at the negotiating table.

We each have a responsibility to play our part in making this a reality. Get in touch here. 

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