Karen Fletcher, Melbourne
La Trobe University was pretty much closed for business by a well-supported staff and student strike on May 4. Every major entrance to the university was blocked by union picket lines, campus coffee shops reported business was down 85%, library and other services were not available and anecdotal evidence indicated that less than 20% of scheduled classes took place.
The strike was initially called by mass meetings of staff on four campuses in response to the university's capitulation to the PM John Howard's agenda of imposing individual contracts and de-unionisation in higher education.
The major staff union, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), has been struggling to complete negotiations with La Trobe University on a new enterprise bargain since the last agreement expired in June 2003. Negotiations have been hampered from the outset by the university's desire to comply with foreshadowed Higher Education Workplace Reform Requirements (HEWRRs) even before those requirements become law.
Late last year the university evicted the NTEU and other campus unions from their offices, citing the Howard government's requirement that universities must not provide free office space or any other support to unions. The NTEU has since rented space, at an exorbitant price, in the university's commercial precinct.
According La Trobe University NTEU branch secretary Bill Deller, negotiations on a new agreement had almost concluded in late April when the university demanded that the entire agreement be subject to a clause allowing management to unilaterally vary the deal if required to do so by the federal government.
Growing concern among staff about the Howard government's agenda for university workers has dovetailed with an upturn in student activism on campus against the abolition of universal student unionism. The Student Representative Council voted for a student strike on May 4, in solidarity with staff and in support of the right of both students and staff to have unions to protect their rights.
Since the decision to strike was taken, the federal government confirmed its intention to press ahead with enforcement of its HEWRRs on all Australian campuses. The announcement, circulated by email by the La Trobe vice-chancellor Paul Osborne on the day before the strike, no doubt galvanised wavering staff to stay away from work. It is likely that the La Trobe strike is just the first of many to come as the battle over higher education hots up.
From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.
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