SYDNEY — National Tertiary Education Union members at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles Sturt University (CSU) leafleted students and their families at graduation ceremonies on April 6-8 to highlight their campaign to force the university to return to the negotiating table to finalise an enterprise agreement.

“It's been nearly 20 months of bargaining now at CSU, and the NTEU have been seeking a period of intensive bargaining to finalise our agreement since December last year as a matter of urgency”, NTEU CSU branch president Kevin Poynter told Green Left Weekly. “The only way we've been able to force management to call meetings is when we have threatened industrial action.”

“In addition to the graduation ceremony actions, stop-work meetings on campus have attracted around 140 staff, and we've had lots of emails of support from members who can't get to the meetings”, Poynter added.

CSU is a major employer in the cities of Wagga Wagga, Bathurst and Albury, where its largest campuses are based.

One of the key points on which CSU is refusing to negotiate is the NTEU's claim for an appeals mechanism under the university's three-year employment probation period.

Susan Price

From Green Left Weekly, April 13, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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