Last month 20,000 people rallied against education cuts by the state government.
Following a stalemate over pay in enterprise bargaining negotiations, Murdoch University members of the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) voted to go to a ballot for industrial action.
Union members will vote on 10 potential courses of action, including temporary stoppages, an indefinite strike, marks bans, recruitment and university event bans, bans on responding to enquiries, overtime bans, bans on work associated with transnational programs, teaching bans and bans on participation in Performance Enhancement System and Professional Development Review processes.
The union is campaigning for a 4% a year pay rise over the next four years — a pay rise in step with inflation. The university is offering a pay rise of 2% for 2014, and 2% again in 2015. This is well below inflation and effectively a pay cut.
The NTEU has been in enterprise bargaining negotiations since November last year, and the university is not budging on the pay offer. It is now clear that industrial action is necessary to move things forward.
Murdoch staff have the lowest pay of any university in Western Australia, and are also paid well below the national average. Despite this, the university claims it can’t afford the pay rise, and are using the federal government’s $2.7 billion funding cuts to higher education as an excuse.
Under the cuts, Murdoch University is set to lose $9 million over the next two years. But according to the NTEU the university won’t go into debt if they give the staff a pay rise in step with inflation. Last year the university had an $85.2 million surplus, and surpluses are also predicted in the coming years.
The university also claims its pay offer is consistent with other deals around the country. This is simply not true. In Western Australia, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University have already agreed to 4% a year pay rises over the next four years.
At most universities where enterprise bargaining has begun, the offers have mostly been around 2 to 3%. However no deals have yet been reached. Some universities have already begun industrial action.
Murdoch University staff last went on strike in 2009, also over pay. They won their demands. The University of Western Australia branch of the NTEU also staged protests in 2010 against staff cuts in engineering, and won back half the jobs set to be cut.
Apart from these two important campaigns, union activity has been comparatively quiet in WA recently. If the Murdoch union membership votes in favour of industrial action this will set an important precedent for the campaign against cuts to higher education, which is strong in the eastern states but still in its early stages in WA.
It has the potential to break the lethargy among WA university staff that has set in after decades of grinding cut backs to higher education.
It could also educate university students about trade unionism. Student-staff solidarity is growing in WA, largely thanks to a dedicated campaign by the Curtin University student guild and other student organisations against the education cuts.
The Murdoch University ballot might also play a part in a generalised increase in trade union activity in Western Australia. Unionists employed at high school and primary school recently mobilised 20,000 people in a statewide stoppage against education cuts by the state government.
The ballot is open until October 24. To succeed, over 50% of union members must vote. The union leadership can legally proceed with industrial action if over 50% of the vote is in favour. The NTEU is encouraging Murdoch staff to join the union and vote in favour of all 10 items.