SA Division

www.nteu.org.au/sa

Division Officers SA Division Secretary: Ron Slee Division Asst Secretary: Nick Warner Division President: Peter Cardwell Division Vice-Presidents: Virginie Masson (Academic), Katerin Berniz (General)

Division Staff Division Industrial Officers: Annie Buchecker, Kathy Harrington Division Industrial Organiser: Cheryl Baldwin Division Organisers: Juliet Fuller, Rebecca Galdies Administration Officer: Donna Good The South Australian Division represents over 1,950 members at three public universities: University of Adelaide, University of South Australia and Flinders University.

Recruitment & Membership, Training and Development Over the last 12 months, membership increased by 3%. Adelaide Branch increased membership by 5.5%, UniSA by 3.9%, Flinders by 1.4%. At Flinders, we lost many long-term members including seven Branch Committee officers, as a university-wide restructure impacted on hundreds of academic and professional staff. Across all Branches, we monitored all resignations and while most who left the Union had retired or left the sector we minimised attrition by contacting every member whose membership lapsed because their fee payments had fallen behind. Recruitment and retention plans are in place to rebuild membership density at each Branch. Adelaide Branch has an active Campaign Committee, tasked with planning campaigns to recruit new members from amongst staff who feel apprehensive about their future employment especially in light of the financial hit to international student revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Federal Government’s legislation to further cut public funding to universities. We conducted a series of training sessions for delegates and Branch officers with the assistance of national officers. In 2019 and for the early months of 2020 these were held face-to-face including an all-day Cultural Competency Education session conducted by Adam Frogley with Uncle Lewis O’Brien providing valuable local knowledge and inspiration. Katerin Berniz, Flinders Branch Secretary and National Councillor, was supported to attend a 4-day Advanced Training Intensive for union delegates at SA Unions. SA Unions held its annual Organising Conference in November 2019 – we attended along with 100 other officials. Three QUTE caucus members (Suzanne Edwards, Liz McNeill and Peter Cardwell) attended NTEU National QUTE Conference in Melbourne this year. In March, the two Division Organisers (Juliet Fuller and Rebecca Galdies) and the Division Secretary attended a training session conducted by Kristy Jones from the ACTU Behavioural Insights Unit. This turned out to be the last face-to-face training conducted by ACTU in SA this year. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Division Forums in SA were held on-line this year as was the National Forum and this enabled all invited members to participate. Division Industrial Organiser, Cheryl Baldwin, led the coordination of 2 series of training sessions for Branch committee members and delegates. The first in May covered ‘becoming a delegate’, COVID-19 and the workplace, mental health at work, and the Fair Work Act and policy interpretation. The second in July dealt with ‘neoliberalism and universities’, having a recruitment conversation, campaigning collectively, and

how to organise ourselves and our members. These sessions were attended by delegates from all Branches and facilitated by National Office staff Helena Spyrou, Linda Gale, Terri MacDonald and Kieran McCarron as well as local activists including Victoria Fielding and Kent Getsinger. Adelaide Branch Committee member, Jess Jacobson, devoted hours, energy and good humour to ensure these sessions were a success. Cheryl continued to provide new Branch committee member training at Adelaide. Following Fair Work Commission approval of the Enterprise Agreement Variation at the University of Adelaide, NTEU members of the COVID-19 Temporary Measures Committee (Nick Warner, Virginie Masson and Cheryl Baldwin) received Job Protection Framework training organised and conducted by Helena Spyrou, Ken McAlpine and Kelly Thomas. In June, three Branch Delegates and our two Division Organisers, Juliet Fuller and Rebecca Galdies, participated in training conducted by the Centre for Australian Progress. In March, Donna Good enrolled in a 5-day Health and Safety Representative training program run by SA Unions. Many of our delegates, members and staff attended training and briefing sessions conducted this year by National Office staff from Industrial & Legal, Policy & Research, and Campaign & Organising Teams. Not only were these sessions very informative but being on-line enabled greater attendance than would normally be possible.

Public Advocacy and Campaigns Much of our focus was directly linked to national campaigns. We worked to defeat the Ensuring Integrity Bill, which was successful although in SA we were unable to persuade Centre Alliance Senators to oppose it. We joined the campaign to expose and redress wage theft in higher education and the ‘Stand with Gerd’ campaign. We fought the Fund Uni Fairly campaign which, in the short term, failed to block the Job-Ready Graduates Bill (in SA our attempts to persuade Senator Griff failed although Senator Patrick voted against the Bill).

Of course, this campaign had its origins in our attempts to save jobs in universities hit harshly by the COVID-19 pandemic. We gave top priority to the Jobs Protection Framework (JOF) campaign and to pressuring the Federal Government to provide a financial rescue package for universities. In SA, the University of Adelaide agreed to a temporary Enterprise Agreement variation in accordance with the JPF but the other two public universities declined. We also urged the State Government to provide financial support to universities. NTEU was one of a group of unions that met weekly with the SA Economic Recovery Reference Group to push proposals to save jobs in SA, including a range of measures designed to rebuild higher education. In addition to national campaigns, our Branches conducted local campaigns around workloads, student evaluation surveys, restructures, health and safety issues for staff working from home and on campus, academic role statements, on-line teaching as well as breaches of their Enterprise Agreement. Following an ICAC investigation and the subsequent resignation of Peter Rathjen as Vice Chancellor, the Adelaide Branch campaigned around governance and related issues canvassed in the ICAC report. All of the national campaigns and some of the local campaigns provided opportunities for the NTEU to lift its public advocacy profile on important political, social and environmental issues. Some of our participation was limited to virtual engagement.

Events SA Division is affiliated with the May Day Collective and this year May Day celebrations were conducted by zoom; our QUTE caucus met to commemorate International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on 17 May albeit not in the same room as they had at the Qute Queeries quiz night in previous years. However, not everything was restricted by COVID-19. We celebrated International Women’s Day, marched with 10,000 others in Adelaide at a climate strike rally and spoke at NUS and SA Union protest events. We are members of Labour History SA and participated in their monthly events and annual conference. We plan to hold our annual Bluestocking Dinner as a live event later this year, celebrating historic struggles and achievements of women in higher education, canvassing current challenges and raising funds for Catherine House, which provides accommodation for women experiencing homelessness. ◆

Images (this page): Nicholas Glover (UniSA) #SaveHigherEd National Day of Action selfie, 21 May 2020; Flinders Branch Heart of the University, Dec 2019; ‘We are the University’ recruitment poster.