Sue Bull, Ballarat
After the defeat by the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) last year of two ballots for a non-union enterprise agreement at the University of Ballarat, management resorted to offering Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs) to current staff. Vice-Chancellor Kerry Cox went a step further on January 13, declaring that all new staff would be appointed on AWAs.
The AWAs for current staff come with a "bribe", according to NTEU branch president Jeremy Smith. "Without a current enterprise agreement, this is the only means to gain a pay rise here. But we think that many staff will stick with the union's campaign for a collective agreement", he told Green Left Weekly.
On hearing about the university's latest move, ACTU president Sharan Burrow declared: "This is proof of the government's real agenda — to enable employers to remove the right of workers to collectively bargain and force them onto AWAs that reduce wages or conditions. This is not about giving employees better choices; it's about giving them no choice but to accept whatever the employer offers, or not have a job."
A publicity campaign has been launched involving unions in the United States, Britain and New Zealand, as well as Ballarat, which includes placing advertisements in the Australian Higher Education Supplement, building community pressure and holding open meetings on campus. Smith told GLW, "This is fierce attack on collectivism. First they try to bribe a section of staff to leave the enterprise agreement to pick up AWAs with mostly inferior conditions. Then they give new staff no choice but to sign an AWA.
"It is part of an aggressive strategy to erode union influence over conditions at this university. However, we're not so easily rolled and we plan to escalate the campaign we've been running for nearly two years."
Messages of support can be emailed to <nteu@ballarat.edu.au>.
From Green Left Weekly, January 25, 2006.
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