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Episode 22: The University is on notice
145 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, Kate & Tony round out the semester by updating everyone on a bunch of different things. Most important is the result of the all-members meeting where we voted unanimously to initiate increased industrial action at the beginning of semester one next year if the university fails to make meaningful concessions in bargaining. This officially puts the university on notice and starts the clock ticking. Either they get their act together or we take our biggest and most significant actions yet.
We also give a bargaining update, cover the branch's motion on the disaster unfolding in Gaza, and talk about why everyone should join the Industrial Action Working Group to help shape what actions we take in the future.
If you have questions you'd like answered, or any topics you would like to hear covered on the podcast, drop us an email at [email protected]
You can also stay up to date with everything happening with bargaining at our new bargaining website, and with the branch on Facebook and Twitter. All of which can be found here - https://linktr.ee/myunionwroteaneba
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Transcript
Introduction and Acknowledgment
00:00:18
Speaker
G'day, everyone, and welcome to My Union Wrote an EBA. This is a podcast to chronicle the progress towards a new enterprise bargaining agreement at Monash University and is brought to you by members of the Monash branch of the NTEU. We're here to take the old agreement and hashtag change it. And unlike our namesake, my dad wrote a porno to everything we can to avoid being fucked in the process.
00:00:41
Speaker
Those involved with the podcast would like to acknowledge that it is being recorded on the unceded lands of the Kulin nations, on whose lands we live, teach and work. We would like to acknowledge and pay our respects to the traditional custodians and elders, past and present, and to the continuation of the cultural, spiritual and educational practices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.
Union Update: Growth and Activism
00:01:07
Speaker
Hi, everyone.
00:01:09
Speaker
I'm Adam Fernandes, your National Councillor at the Monash branch of the NTEU. It has been 502 days since our last agreement expired and my goodness time has flown. Our negotiating team has made it very far in improving the working conditions of the Monash staff. No fault on their part of course.
00:01:28
Speaker
Dear members, it's easy to despair at the progress that we're making, or lack thereof. So I thought I would take some time to give you some numbers that may brighten up your day. In the last 502 days, we've had 503 members join the union. We've taken more stop work actions than ever before. This year, we started with a four hour stop work and escalated to a full 48 hours. In fact, of those 502 members that joined,
00:01:57
Speaker
55 of them joined just last month. We've also increased our pool of activists and are now one of the most active branches in the country. So members, as the university tries the same title tactics they used in the last round of bargaining, they forget that the branch has fundamentally changed.
Union Strength and Strategy Discussion
00:02:16
Speaker
The longer they drag it out, the stronger the union will get. And if we keep going this way, we won't have to compromise on our claims. That's it from me. I'm Adam Fernandes, signing out.
Gaza Conflict: Branch's Stance and Solidarity
00:02:30
Speaker
G'day, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. A bunch of different stuff we're going to talk to you about today, wrapping up the semester, wrapping up the year, and a bit of an insight into the things that we're going to be doing over the summer break, and that we hope you will also help us do over the summer break. So, without delay, let's get into it.
00:02:51
Speaker
The first thing that we want to talk about, which is admittedly a very sombre way to begin is with this ongoing situation in Gaza.
00:03:04
Speaker
As some of you may be aware, earlier this month, the branch passed a motion regarding the unfolding disaster in Gaza. As the death toll continues to rise, a toll that currently stands at somewhere north of 11,000 people, including some 5,000 children, we felt it was important to not be silent. Our motion condemned the killing of civilians and called for immediate ceasefire, demands that a growing number of people, organizations and governments around the world are also calling for.
00:03:34
Speaker
and as they should be. Advocating for anything other than an end to the killing is advocating for the continuation of that killing. And with a growing number of people also arguing the events in Gaza constitute at a minimum grave and repeated violations of human rights and international law and at worst genocide, anything other than demanding an immediate end to the conflict is unconscionable.
00:04:01
Speaker
Nationally, the MTEU recognises the urgency of international solidarity in ending the apartheid system and settler colonial control to which Israel has subjected the Palestinians for more than seven decades now. As such, we reiterate the Union's call to participate in active solidarity with Palestinians and with the Palestinian diaspora. In Victoria, this includes, but is not limited to, attending the Sunday rallies at the State Library every Sunday until the conflict ends.
00:04:31
Speaker
which if you want to join the NTU contingent, each week the NTU brings big purple flags so you should be able to see them relatively easy in the crowd. Just come up and introduce yourselves if you'd like to join the NTU contingent. Our motion also recognised the statements made by the Muslim Students Association of Victoria in advocating for peace and justice and the Monash Arab Society statement in response to the all staff email titled Israel and Hamas conflict.
00:05:02
Speaker
Finally, we also noted that we stand opposed to any attempts at portraying the pro-Palestinian movement and the movement towards a ceasefire and an end of the conflict as being anti
Debating Pro-Palestinian and Anti-Semitism Issues
00:05:14
Speaker
-Semitic. This includes Monash's adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which curtails the rights of Jews and non-Jews alike to criticize the policies of Israel without those criticisms being falsely labeled as anti-Semitic.
00:05:28
Speaker
This movement stands against racism and bigotry in all its forms, and any such racism must be called out. Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism are completely unacceptable and are antithetical to the ethos of everything that we do as a union. Here, here, Tony, and I hope to see some of you at the protest on Sunday. So now to move on to a little bargaining update.
Bargaining Progress and Industrial Action Plans
00:05:55
Speaker
Where are we at at the moment? So we've now been bargaining for over a year and we're at the pointy end now. We've presented everything that we have to present to the university, but we're still waiting on them for a range of issues. We're really getting to the point where the real bargaining begins and decisions start to be made about our priorities as a union and what we want to prioritize in the bargaining group.
00:06:24
Speaker
This also means that is the point at which it is most important that we show our power as a union and make the university understand that they need to listen to our concerns and come to the table with real and meaningful change. We'll return to this a little bit later when we talk about the all members meeting and what was decided there.
00:06:42
Speaker
So, so far to help move bargaining along, the university has agreed to one extra bargaining meeting and then to revisit the conversation about whether to have more bargaining meetings at the end of that meeting. Which isn't great, but it's a start. Have they budged on anything? Well, I mean,
00:07:06
Speaker
Not on any of the big stuff. A few of the minor items, there's been some movement on academic freedom, which obviously is also tied into what we were just saying about Gaza. Also some movement on OH&S and parental leave. But there are big outstanding issues, particularly around things like workloads and job security.
00:07:30
Speaker
And it's within that context of bargaining that we had our all members meeting last week where members voted unanimously to intensify industrial action in semester one. Should university management continue to delay and deny significant improvements on job security, pay and workloads? Essentially what that motion was saying was that the university is now on notice that
00:07:58
Speaker
if they don't come to the table, if they don't start making concessions, if they don't start actually offering some of the real and meaningful and tangible improvements that we are all seeking, and that they know they have to make, that we will be taking action. That there's come the start of semester one, that everything is on the table, all of our actions, anything is possible. And one of the things that the people were asking was about why that motion wasn't more specific, why we weren't just saying, all right,
00:08:26
Speaker
come start of semester one it's going to be a strike or it's going to be this or it's going to be that and the reason that it wasn't like that was because we wanted to leave our options open so another part of of what happened during that all members meeting was that we had really good discussions around the need to do structured organizing conversations at a workplace level so thinking back to the kinds of stuff that we were talking about a few episodes ago with our comrades from Melbourne University and the idea being that
00:08:53
Speaker
if we were to lock ourselves into a particular action now at a meeting in November, that it may not match up with the concrete conditions.
00:09:02
Speaker
of what we are dealing with come February next year. Who knows what kind of progress the team can make over summer? Who knows the kind of concessions that Monash might actually come to the table with? We don't wanna lock ourselves into anything that is too specific when we're so far out. What this does is it gives us an opportunity. It gives us a number of months to be putting in the groundwork, to be having those conversations and doing that prep work now and having those conversations, gauging where people are at,
00:09:31
Speaker
conducting a kind of sort of systematic analysis of what actions would be effective in which workplaces, how we can most impact what the university is doing at any given time, and assess what can disrupt the production of the education commodity. What we can do at the beginning of semester one next year that will have the biggest impact and that can be most closely and most effectively tailored to exactly what is happening.
00:09:58
Speaker
So, you know, are there going to be particular meetings that happen? Are there going to be particular people that are on campus? Are there going to be particular events that are happening? We don't know most of those things now. We can use this time now over the break as we're having these conversations to work through what we can do, when we can do it, where we can do it and what we can do that will have the most bang for its buck. Yeah, absolutely. And also like to talk to other union members to see their ideas about how
00:10:29
Speaker
their workplaces could be most effectively disrupted as well. So that's something we'll talk about in a minute too. But before we get on to that, we just wanted to touch on the PhD contracts again.
PhD Contracts and Casualization Critique
00:10:44
Speaker
We did mention them a bit in the last episode, but just as a refresher, the university has introduced a series of measures to address the problem of over-casualisation.
00:10:55
Speaker
but none really get quite to the heart of the issue, just like the PhD contracts. So many of you will be aware that they're being offered to PhD candidates at a 0.1 or 0.2 fraction. And while we recognise that having a guarantee of work for the duration of a PhD might really help with planning and security, many of the fractions amount to less than $8,000 a year and do nothing to address the fact that over half of Monash staff
00:11:24
Speaker
currently employed on short-term insecure contracts. We're not going to go into much more detail here as we had a longer chat about them last episode, so check out that episode if you want to get into the details of those contracts. But I really just want to reiterate what PhD students have been saying to me and to Tony and to some of our colleagues as well.
00:11:46
Speaker
that these contracts are insulting, that they don't reflect the real value that PhD students provide to the university, that they won't cover basic cost of living for most PhD students as the stipend doesn't either, that's again below the poverty line, and that they show PhD students that the university really doesn't care about the lives and livelihoods of their students.
00:12:12
Speaker
And unfortunately, this reflects exactly what I saw when I met with university management about this exact issue more than a year ago. In this regard, they really are just playing the hits. And just to, I guess, reiterate something that Kate has just said, in the conversations that I've had with PhD students that have been offered these contracts, it is really just a slap in the face.
00:12:40
Speaker
So many of these people have given so much time and so much care and effort in their studies, in the teaching that they have been doing,
00:12:53
Speaker
in every aspect of their relationship with the university and then the university rolls out this big PR campaign and they make all these promises and then to have them turn around and give them these contracts that have in every single way imaginable basically the minimum possible offering that they could give.
00:13:16
Speaker
So, you know, the ones that we have seen have been the lowest possible fraction, have been the lowest possible pay range, have had explicit promises that were made to them in Q&A sessions and in conversations with supervisors and people that were associated with the rollout of this program just explicitly walked back and violated. It just feels like a con. It just feels like there's been a massive bait and switch and that
00:13:48
Speaker
What they now feel is that even more so than before, the university only cares about them as a number. That now all they are is, you know, a figure in a statement that the university can release or can table to parliament about the number of people that are now in secure work. Secure work doesn't mean shit if that secure work isn't giving you enough to live on.
00:14:17
Speaker
if all that they're willing to offer you over the course of a year of this contract is like two and a quarter days worth of the pay that Margaret Gardner was getting, what the fuck is the point of it? If you have been offered one of these and you don't want it, don't take it. You don't have to. You're not locked into any of this shit. Um, and I think that what these contracts really show,
00:14:45
Speaker
is how closely and connected fighting for better workloads and more secure jobs are. These pair of digital contracts are such tiny fractions, like I've just said, that it's three and a half hours a week. You know, in most cases in Sophos, for example, more than half of that would be taking one tutorial. Anyone who has done any teaching before will know that you can't even do the preparation
00:15:15
Speaker
for one shoot in three and a half hours a week let alone you know do the marking and all the associated stuff that goes along with it and that an expectation in addition to that is that they're sort of back dooring in the student consultations that they're unwilling to pay casual staff for that's an hour a week again of things that they're expecting you to do where they're wanting you to be in a place to do a thing and you know
00:15:39
Speaker
These jobs technically are more secure, like in a very strict reading of, or Monash's very strict reading of what secure means, you won't have to reapply for your job every few months. But it just runs the risk of enshrining the exploitation and the overwork that is already happening. That doesn't change. You're not getting a better deal in that sense.
00:16:08
Speaker
the exploitation is just sort of shifting forms and putting on a hat. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the idea of going right back to insecure employment as soon as your PhD is finished as well, because this does nothing for teaching staff that aren't currently doing a PhD at Monash too.
Industrial Action Working Group Introduction
00:16:27
Speaker
So if this gets, you know, all the sort of stuff about bargaining and the PhD contracts and all that sort of stuff gets you a bit frustrated and
00:16:35
Speaker
you know, wanting to make some change or, you know, shake things up a bit at the university. The union has an industrial action working group, which is essentially a group of union members that help organize industrial action. Um, so they've done some of the industrial action you've already seen. So they're doing things like how we can be effective as possible with our actions in terms of timing, shape of actions, what we do in industrial action.
00:17:03
Speaker
So every kind of part of it is organized by this working group and we're looking for more members to get involved and share their ideas. It's always really great to have new people and many hands make like work as well. This is an open group and we're always looking for our members to get involved. And just on that, on the note about it being an open group, that's one thing that I really want to emphasize as well. Like this is how
00:17:30
Speaker
you can become more active within the union. So, you know, there's only a certain amount of spots on the branch committee. That's whatever. This is how, like, this is grassroots, meaningful work that you can do and that you can get involved in. And it's really important that we get as many people
00:17:56
Speaker
in as many parts of the university, doing as many different jobs within the university as possible. Because if we don't have that, if all we have is a small group of people that are all part of the same part of the university, all doing the same job, we're ignoring, we're not able to access the kinds of knowledge, the kinds of institutional knowledge that all those other parts have.
00:18:25
Speaker
Whereas if we can get a massive group from, you know, that is professional staff, that is academic staff, that is casual, that is fixed term, that are, you know, research people, they're in, you know, every different, like you can work in the chance of rebuilding. And if you remember, you can come along as well. Actually, I'd really like you to come along if you work in a chance of rebuilding. And tell us what will work, tell us what we can do.
00:18:51
Speaker
help us shape what we do going forward and what our industrial action looks like. If you've ever been involved or if you've ever seen any of the industrial action that we've done and thought this wouldn't work in my workplace or this, it wasn't as effective as it could have been where I am in the university.
00:19:12
Speaker
this is your opportunity to address that problem. This is your opportunity to help us speak to the people in your area. If you want to say, if you're one of the parts of the university where there aren't that many union members because people there don't feel like the union is for them for whatever reason,
00:19:35
Speaker
help us speak to those people, tell us what to say, what is the things that we can do to reach those people. We wanna reach those people. We wanna reach everybody in the university. The more people that we have and the more voices that we have, the better we can do what we wanna do, which is to represent everybody that is employed by the university. Anyway, so if you wanna see any particular things happening, please join the group.
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the more people we have, the harder it is to ignore us. So that's kind of another big reason to get involved. As well, you know, as I often say on this podcast and probably everybody's sick of hearing, hearing me say as well, you know, Tony and I aren't, you know, paid organizers. We don't kind of have necessarily a background in this. We just sort of decided that
00:20:25
Speaker
we wanted to get involved and really that's all it takes. So if you want to get involved as well, you can email the branch at monash at nteu.org.au to join the Industrial Action Working Group.
00:20:36
Speaker
The group will be meeting semi-regularly over the break so that we can start to formulate those plans and so that, you know, come next year, we can really hit the ground running and we can really roll out a set of things that can be really effective. So please do email through to the branch if you're interested.
00:20:56
Speaker
And in a similar vein, we just wanted to let you know of some of our upcoming episodes, which will hopefully help our members become more involved and build more power.
Upcoming Events and Announcements
00:21:05
Speaker
So first of all, we will have an episode out at some point in the new year with some resources about some tactics you can use to get your workplace organized and ready for the next industrial action. Also, if you were around for the 48 hour strike, particularly on that Tuesday, you might have had the pleasure to have attended some of the teachings that were happening.
00:21:26
Speaker
Um, we received a lot of really positive feedback about those. That was one of the real highlights that a lot of people pointed out. Um, and we have a recording of those, um, which we will be releasing, uh, as upcoming episodes as well. So finally, the NTU is having an interview barbecue on Wednesday, the 29th of November from 12 to 2 PM. Keep an eye out on your inbox for the invite and hope to see you all there.
00:21:54
Speaker
We'll also be presenting the Sandra Cockfield Award for Organiser of the Year. So yeah, come and see that being given out for another year. Kate is much too graceful to say it, but she is the current holder of that Sandra Cockfield Award for Activism. So she is about to see out her reign in that position. So come along and see who the next person will be that will take over.
00:22:21
Speaker
And as always, if you have any questions about bargaining, please send us an email at myunionrotoneba at gmail.com. See you all soon, and good luck with wrapping up everything for the end of semester. All right, folks, that's it for this episode. Thanks to Kate, Danny, Adam, Bernard, and Pod Daddy, Sophia, for all the work they've put into this, and we'll catch you next time.