Victorian Division www.nteu.org.au/vic Division Officers Victorian Division Secretary: Mel Slee Division Asst Secretary: Sarah Roberts Division President: Nic Kimberley (to June 2019), Mark Shier (from Aug 2019) Div Vice-Presidents: Christian Haesemeyer (Academic), Cathy Rojas (to June 2019), Sara Brocklesby (General) (from Aug 2019)
Division Staff Senior Industrial Officer: Linda Gale Senior State Organiser: Chloe Gaul Division Industrial Officers: Rob Binnie, Clare Danaher, Margaret Maloney, Serena O’Meley, Corey Rabaut, Stan Rosenthal, Rhidian Thomas, Gia Underwood, Azita Arian (from Apr 2019) Division Industrial Organiser: Janet Bourke Division Organisers: Rifai Abdul, Noel Gardiner (to Sept 2019), Simon Linskill (from Aug 2019), David Willis Branch Industrial Organisers: Linda Cargill, Anna Gunn (to Feb 2019), Lisbeth Latham, Colin Muir, Jesse Page, Garry Ryan, Liz Schroeder, Amelia Sully Branch Organiser: Frank Gafa Campaigns & Comms Officer: Toby Cotton Campaigns & Comms Organiser: Philippa Wright (from July 2019) Recruitment & Campaign Organiser: Gaurav Nanda (to Apr 2019) Admin Officer/Executive Support: Adrienne Bradley Image (this page): Change the Rules rally, Oct 2018. Images (opposite page): Nic Kimberley announcing casual employment figures with Michele O’Neil, April 2018; Mel Slee; Our casuals story on the cover of The Age, May 2019.
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Victorian Division represents over 9,000 members at nine public universities: Deakin University, Federation University Australia (FUA), La Trobe University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT University, Swinburne University, Victoria University (VU), two campuses of Australian Catholic University (ACU) and many TAFE sites and smaller education providers, such as William Angliss and Navitas. With a change of leadership following the election of State Secretary, Dr Melissa Slee, and Assistant Secretary, Sarah Roberts, has come a new emphasis on building our organising capacity through grassroots campaigns, identifying and training new delegates and membership growth.
Recruitment & Membership, Training and Development
Professional Development seminars which have included afternoon sessions on organising to fight back! Lead Organiser, Chloe Gaul, has also been conducting Branch-based Delegates training for new delegates.
Round 7 Bargaining The past year has focused on finalising round 7 Agreements with an ongoing battle to finalise an Enterprise Agreement at Monash and very difficult negotiations at VU.
Monash Monash management’s intransigence in bargaining has given the NTEU a lot of great opportunities to rebuild the Branch Committee and engage a layer of new activists. The NTEU Branch has had a lot of fun not reaching Agreement with a popular Ban on Open Day, a Pizza lunch speakout as part of a 73-minute stop work and strikes to attend the Change the Rules rallies. The NTEU has used social media, Facebook and memes to maintain morale and win community support. At 73%, Monash has the highest rates of insecure work of any campus in Victoria, a fact the NTEU has used every opportunity to advertise! The major sticking points in bargaining are the NTEU’s mandatory settlement point for a 2021 Expiry Date and the timely introduction of 17% Superannuation for fixed term contract staff.
The Victorian Division has resourced its strategy of building organising capacity through investing in formal training and development. Two NTEU staff, Amelia Sully and Frank Gafa, are attending the ACTU’s intensive year-long Organising Works training and the State Secretary and Assistant Secretary are attending the ACTU’s Leading Unions training.
VU
The Victorian Division has also conducted a number of well attended day-long Casuals
NTEU staff and local leaders at VU have successfully defeated VU management in not one, but two, non-union ballots. The
NTEU Annual Report 2019 ◆ Victorian Division