National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) members at the University of Sydney will be on strike tomorrow, Wednesday August 17.
It is the fourth day of strikes since May. A further strike is planned for the university’s Open Day on Saturday August 27 if progress isn’t made in negotiations with management.
As part of tomorrow’s strike, pickets will be held at all university entrances from 7am.
Staff are demanding an end to exploitative casualisation, preservation of academics’ right to conduct research, improved job-security, increased protections against overwork, and a pay rise above inflation.
“Sydney Uni posted more than a billion dollars in surplus last year,” said Dr Nick Riemer, the president of the university’s NTEU branch.
“There’s no good reason for management to refuse our proposals, but the Vice-Chancellor, Mark Scott, and the Provost, Annamarie Jagose, have not agreed to the reasonable demands of staff.”
“Over 74% of the teaching at the university is done by staff on precarious contracts. It’s high time university management stopped stalling, and committed to improving job-security and conditions for existing staff, to safeguarding the teaching-research nexus, and to creating new jobs for long-term casuals. This is the least that a university that’s serious about students and research should be doing,” Dr Reimer said.
Dr Damien Cahill, NTEU NSW Division Secretary said: “Sydney Uni’s billion-dollar surplus was delivered through the hard work of uni staff and a business model premised on widespread precarious employment. Staff deserve job security and a fair pay rise, and it’s clear that the University can afford to deliver both. It’s time for management to get serious about investing in their most important asset: their staff”.
