YOUR UNION
New staff in NTEU offices T
o better help you to get to know your local Union staff, we are pleased to present these brief profiles of recently arrived Branch and Division staff.
Emma Clancy
Elizabeth McGrath
Industrial Organiser WA Division
Industrial Officer National Office
Emma Clancy has worked in politics and the media in Australia and Ireland. She studied politics at Curtin University, where she was involved in the student anti-war movement and the campaign against voluntary student unionism. Emma spent several years living in Ireland where she worked as a newspaper sub-editor. She has been involved in a range of social justice campaigns over the past decade and is currently studying law.
Holly Kemp Branch Organiser QUT Since graduating in BA in Peace and Conflict Studies, Holly has had the opportunity to test theories from her field from a number of angles; exploring collective organising, structural inequality and the pursuit of gender equality in the workplace with the Queensland Nurses Union, and later, feminist support work, recovery and peer support models of mental health ‘treatment’ with the Eating Disorders Association. Holly has also been active in Queer and Feminist organising; movement building and workshopping. Holly says that it’s the intellectual stimulation of working with the NTEU that keeps her passionate. Working with QUT staff in her role since September 2011, Holly has been very inspired by the strategic activity and analysis of the QUT Branch activists. There is a real solidarity amongst members and a great chemistry when they come together to work collaboratively on Union initiatives. Holly looks forward to working with her QUT colleagues to ensure that management are more respectful of, and influenced by, the expertise that QUT staff undoubtedly have, to resolve the problems that concern them. JULY 2012 www.nteu.org.au
Elizabeth McGrath was welcomed into the National Industrial team in May. Elizabeth has come from the AMWU Victorian Branch where she worked for four years as an inhouse lawyer. She appeared at Fair Work Australia almost daily on behalf of AMWU members and therefore has extensive experience in running applications under the Act. Elizabeth has a special interest in the plight of casuals and recently won a casual conversion case. Following this decision, SPC Ardmona recognised its obligation to convert all employees who meet the EBA criteria to ongoing positions. Elizabeth will be running litigation to coincide with the bargaining campaign. This will particularly reference the Williams v McMahon precedent as a basis to claim annual leave entitlements to employees incorrectly classified as ‘casual.’ She will also be assisting state industrial officers running applications at FWA and giving direct briefs to counsel in Federal Court matters.
David Willis Branch Organiser Deakin University David joins NTEU after 20 years working in the NSW Department of Education and Communities as a teacher, education consultant, policy advisor and program manager. David was an active member of the NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) being workplace delegate and State Councillor. He represented the NSWTF at the 2011 Outgames International Human Rights Conference in NZ, the 2010 AEU Public Education Forum at Parliament House in Canberra and he sat on State restricted committees. As a member of the GLBTI Committee he wrote the NSWTF policy, Gender and Sexu-
ality and presented this policy in a report to Annual Conference in 2011. In his new role David has joined the Australian Services Union and has connected with GLBTI activists in both the re-established Victorian Workers Out group and NTEU.
Tim McCann Branch Organiser ANU
Tim McCann has worked as a broadcaster in local community radio for almost thirty years, and he volunteers for the National Museum of Labour. He also has experience as a performance artist, a house painter, a community based researcher, and a purveyor of organic vegies. Tim has worked in a number of roles in Canberra’s community sector. He helped to organise the National Young Unionists Conference in 2009 which he followed with his most recent position as Office Manager of Canberra’s peak union body, the Trades and Labour Council, now known as UnionsACT.
Liz Schroeder Branch Industrial Organiser Monash University Liz became a union activist while working in the Commonwealth Employment Service. She then became an Organiser with the ACOA (CPSU’s predecessor union) and the CPSU, organising in the federal Departments of Employment, Education and Training, Veterans’ Affairs, the Australian Electoral Commission and Telstra for almost 13 years. Liz returned to study and qualified as a primary teacher, where again she became an activist and Sub-Branch Secretary with the AEU. Brief stints with the Fair Work Ombudsman and Ombudsman Victoria followed, before she returned to her passion – union organising. She says ‘Many of the issues in primary teaching are the same as issues in higher education - excessive workloads, insecure work, autocratic styles of management. I’m enjoying being back in the union movement, working with members to tackle these types of issues.’ continued over page... 45