Building on our strengths and defending our achievements

Alison Barnes, National President

As the year draws to a close, we should stop and draw breath for a minute and reflect on what we've been forced to deal with: the biggest crisis the higher education sector has ever faced.

We have had to confront bushfires, hailstorms, floods and, with COVID19, the near-total collapse of the international student market, the challenges of working remotely, massive revenue shortfalls at many universities and, worst of all, the disappearance of thousands of jobs, which has hit insecurely employed staff especially hard.

Throughout 2020, union members have campaigned to protect as many jobs as possible in the face of an uncaring government that changed JobKeeper rules 3 times to prevent access by higher education workers.

We have had to deal with short- sighted and over-paid VCs, most of whom weren’t prepared to protect jobs or defend the sector when the Government announced its JobReady Graduates package, which was narrowly passed by the Senate on 8 October (see p.10).

But not before we had run our Fund Uni Fairly campaign. Members across Australia in their many thousands petitioned, wrote parliamentary submissions, sent emails, attended snap actions, and lobbied politicians to demonstrate their opposition. We sincerely thank independent Senators Jacqui Lambie and Rex Patrick, the Greens and the ALP for their support in opposing these unfair laws. At the same time, tenacious campaigning by members helped to expose 13 (at least) universities – a third of the sector – involved in varieties of wage theft. We also took Federal Court action against JMC Academy, a private higher education provider, over allegations of long-standing wage theft and sham contracting. The case is continuing.

Throughout all this, the Union has remained strong and continues to grow, with membership having reached its highest level ever. Levels of activism and involvement are harder to quantify but are likely to match or exceed anything we have seen. We will need all of this strength and more as we enter the next bargaining round in 2021. We should acknowledge the work of our workplace Delegates, Committees, Caucuses and Councillors who have continued to selflessly give their time for the good of the entire membership and the sector despite their own working lives facing so much disruption this year.

We need to build on the strengths we have honed during this most difficult of years and organise our workplaces so we can continue to grow our ability to defend not only our conditions of work but the future of the sector. As always, we are stronger together.