{"id":486,"date":"2018-05-31T13:36:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T03:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejugular.org\/?p=486"},"modified":"2018-05-31T13:36:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-31T03:36:08","slug":"the-workers-united-a-student-perspective-on-the-unsw-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jugular.org.au\/index.php\/2018\/05\/31\/the-workers-united-a-student-perspective-on-the-unsw-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"The Workers United: A Student Perspective on the UNSW Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>5 Minute, 26 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>

by IKE SCHWARTZ<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s 8:08am and already 30 students flank the Anzac Parade entrance to UNSW\u2019s main campus, supporting the staff clad in purple \u201cproud to be a Union Member\u201d NTEU shirts. As a brief shower washes over the picket line, the students form a ring, distributing flyers and sharing contact details.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important that we remind ourselves why we\u2019re out here today. It\u2019s because our staff\u2019s working conditions are our learning conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

This strike was announced only 6 days prior, and the week\u2019s organisation has been frenetic \u2013 it\u2019s the quickest turnaround in the history of the National Tertiary Education Union. Under the heavily restrictive and incongruously titled Fair Work Act, the NTEU has been required to hold numerous ballots and countless meetings over the previous months. In the one I attended, members voted unanimously to initiate industrial action. If the planned action breaches any one of a number of conditions, it can be suspended. The proposed Sydney Rail workers\u2019 strike was stopped earlier this year for fear it would cause \u201csignificant damage to the economy\u201d, which is, of course, the very reason strikes remain effective as a bargaining tactic at all.<\/p>\n

The staff at UNSW have good reason to initiate such action. Management is currently renewing the enterprise bargaining agreement most staff at UNSW work in accordance to, and negotiations have reached a stalemate. Staff are demanding, for example, that the 6000 casual staff at UNSW receive such basic working conditions as paid sick leave, superannuation contributions in line with other staff, and a right to be converted to permanent staff after working at the university long-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just constantly being pared to the bone\u201d, a well-known Faculty of Medicine teacher and researcher tells me of the staff at MESO, the Medicine Education and Student Office, many of whom are casuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve suffered three restructures in five years, and that sort of precarious existence is just unbelievably stressful. Not knowing if you\u2019ll be employed one semester to the next, it\u2019s just impossible to support yourself, or a family. You can\u2019t get a mortgage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers don\u2019t lie. Of the 200 administrative jobs that were \u201cdisestablished\u201d late last year by UNSW management, a whopping 58 were from the Faculty of Medicine. This follows cuts of 400 university-wide staff announced the year before, projected to save the university $51 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time we bargain, It\u2019s the same old story, that we have to tighten our belts, that there\u2019s not enough for this, there\u2019s not enough for that\u201d Sarah Gregson, president of the UNSW branch of the NTEU, tells the large crowd gathered at Gate 9. But with revenue of over $2 billion last year, $630 million of which came directly from students\u2019 fees, it\u2019s hard to understand why these cuts were necessary. After all, UNSW is supposedly a not-for-profit institution, and its purpose is to provide the best possible environment for its students to be educated in and its staff to teach and research in. If its $50 million-dollar surpluses accrue at the expense of the above causes, then the organisation is not acting true to purpose.<\/p>\n

These cuts affect us. A medical student tells me of their unsuccessful attempt to enrol into Medicine\/Arts after the admin staff member responsible for coordinating that degree was sacked. A mathematics student tells me how the staff member responsible for the Faculty\u2019s website and social media page was cut, and the task was delegated to a lecturer unable to fill that role. An arts\/science student tells me of their experiences trying to receive support for their disability from staff who are personally responsible for up to 400 students with a diverse array of physical and mental support needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust last week, I marked an assignment for my students, and I was paid only 6 minutes per assignment. This means hours and hours of unpaid work, and our students being deprived of adequate feedback\u201d shouts Jason Heffernan, a linguistics tutor and casual worker. Casuals are currently only paid 1-2 hours for preparation per class, resulting in countless hours of unpaid overtime, and an increasing proportion of UNSW teaching staff are being fired from their full time roles and told to reapply for a casualised, lower paid version of their previous position. A key demand of the union is that these workers receive payment for all hours worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just a constant pressure to be casualised. \u2018Lower performing staff\u2019, those who aren\u2019t getting the publications, are sacked, and these are the best teachers. The university just doesn\u2019t support teaching\u201d A researcher at the School of Medical Sciences tells me.<\/p>\n

The demands of this strike are numerous and critical.
\nMedicine students learn abstractly of the systemic barriers faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in achieving professional success. UNSW has one of the lowest Indigenous employment rates of the major universities, no clear targets to improve this, and does not provide Indigenous staff with paid cultural and ceremonial leave.<\/p>\n

We learn that each week on average, one woman is killed by a current or former partner as part of the endemic domestic violence crisis in Australia. UNSW currently provides staff suffering from this abuse with far less domestic violence leave than the 20 days being demanded by the NTEU.<\/p>\n

We learn of the importance of currency of knowledge and professional development. Despite previous agreements to the contrary, UNSW is demanding that its staff teach six out of six trimesters in a two year period, leaving no time whatsoever for our teachers to ensure they can develop educationally and provide students with the best education possible. In the medical field, staff are exposed to a \u201cpublish or perish\u201d work environment that affects their ability to devote their time to teaching. A recent NTEU survey revealed that 100% of surveyed UNSW staff members work on weekends.<\/p>\n

Staff want to teach us as best they can, and students want the best they can give. By withholding their labour, staff have taken the most powerful industrial action they as workers can, and have reminded the management that it is their work that keeps this university alive. Their working conditions are very much our learning conditions, and as students, we must stand in solidarity.<\/p>\n

\n

Ike Schwartz is the Undergraduate Student Representative on the UNSW University Council for 2018 – 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo by NTEU New South Wales.<\/em><\/p>\n

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