UNSW academics turn backs on celebration

By Bea Brear

SYDNEY -- On March 18, about 100 academic staff at the University of New South Wales turned their backs in a symbolic protest on the launch of the university's 50th anniversary celebrations. This was part of a day-long strike demanding better pay and conditions, no increase in student-to-staff ratios and improved government funding of universities.

The UNSW Student Guild voted to support the strike and publicised the rally on campus.

Since October, the National Tertiary Education Industry Union (NTEU) has been negotiating with management over academic pay and conditions. Management recently offered annual 1% pay rises over three years; the union claims this is a pay cut of about 6% after inflation. In recent years academics' pay has slipped by 10% compared with teachers and other professions.

Government university funding has also declined -- by about 5% per student in the last three years -- putting pressure on class sizes and student services. Management uses this cut to justify rejecting the academics' pay demands.

This strike is part of the ongoing campaign by the NTEU on UNSW and Sydney University against the federal government and the individual university managements. On both universities, strikes interrupted the first day of lectures on March 1, the strike extending to March 2 on UNSW.

UNSW academic staff also voted to boycott the 50th anniversary celebrations and hand out protests at graduation ceremonies. They scheduled the March 18 action to coincide with the start of anniversary celebrations.

The NTEU executive recommended a suspension of all industrial action, but this was overwhelmingly rejected by a mass meeting of several hundred academic staff. They vigorously expressed their desire to press forward the campaign and not to forgo the opportunity of expressing their views at the 50th anniversary celebrations.

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