BY KATHLEEN SCOTT
SYDNEY — Sydney University staff have overwhelmingly rejected the federal government's interference in university enterprise bargaining negotiations. A federal government announcement on September 22 led to an 11th-hour decision by university management to renege on a new enterprise bargaining agreement.
Abbott and education minister Brendan Nelson issued a new set of rules barring universities from accessing top-up funding worth $404 million unless they agree to the compulsory introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts). Sydney University management subsequently pulled out of the all-but-signed agreement.
A 300-strong staff meeting on September 24 voted unanimously to take industrial action in response to Abbott's attempt to hold universities to ransom.
Originally planned as the Sydney University National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) branch annual general meeting and proposed endorsement of the enterprise agreement, the meeting was transformed into a heated and emotional response to the university's cowardly about-face.
After almost 12 months of negotiation by the Sydney enterprise bargaining team, staff were angry. Many felt university management was aligning itself with the government's attack on staff members' right to organise.
The move was also seen to be in complete opposition to the Vice-Chancellor Gavin Brown's condemnation of the government's proposed workplace reforms at the Senate meeting earlier in the week. The Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee has also rejected the government's proposals.
NTEU general secretary Grahame McCulloch told the meeting: "These requirements are nothing more than an ideological vendetta on the part of the government, and will do nothing to improve the quality of teaching and research."
The meeting decided to launch two weeks of industrial action including stop-works on September 26 and October 2 before a full 24-hour stoppage on October 7, the first day back after semester break. Members cheered as the motion was passed, with the TV cameras invited inside to capture the moment. Immediately following the meeting, members marched into the main quadrangle, rallying outside the Vice-Chancellor's office.
The unfolding events this week on Sydney University will undoubtedly spill over to other campuses around the country. A big push is now needed to turn this into an NTEU nationwide campaign of industrial action.
From Green Left Weekly, October 1, 2003.
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