The strike happened, but will it again?
It is unknown if Unitec lecturers will be striking again following day long and lightening strikes before the semester break.
Strike action at Unitec began on September 16 because negotiations over employment conditions failed. Lecturers have said they will keep taking action until they get what they want.
Members of the Tertiary Education Union (TEU) in six of New Zealand’s polytechnics voted in favour of strike action after failed negotiations with their employers. This resulted in around 260 Unitec academic staff taking action.
Unitec and the TEU members were looking at entering mediation at the time of print late last week, however, TEU communications officer Stephen Day says if nothing is resolved before the end of the study break industrial action is likely to continue.
However, if the parties do enter mediation, he says the Unitec lecturers will not be taking industrial action this week.
The lecturers were on strike all day on September 16 which resulted in cancelled classes for some students, and then for the week leading up to the break members did lightening strikes for an hour at a time on various days.
About 60 Unitec members were picketing outside Unitec on Carrington Road on September 16.
At the time of the strike, Unitec TEU branch chair Sarah Hardman said the union was planning on further action “until we win, which we will.”
The TEU members at Unitec are part of a national collective that includes NorthTec, WinTec, Whitireia, WITT and Bay of Plenty Polytechnic. They are under a multi-employer collective agreement.
The employers proposed an increase in teaching days by ten percent (from 185 per year to 204), as well as making all discretionary leave to be at the employers’ discretion rather than the employees’, as it is at present. The offer also included a one percent salary increase with no back-dating and a 24 month term from the date of signing (effectively 1 percent for two and half years).
The employers were given until September 14 to meet the TEU’s demands, but TEU national industrial officer Irena Brorens says the employers’ response was simply to restate their existing position.
“These workers are doing all they can for their polytechnics…Enrolments are up and these tutors and lecturers are crucial in the current economic environment, giving job skills to people who need them. Instead their employers are telling them that they are not working hard enough, and that they should be paid less. It’s simply not fair,” she says.
Languages lecturer Pascal Brown was part of the picket line outside Unitec. He says he is striking because he feels the union staff are not being looked after by their employers.
He says the action will have affects on students, but they can do something about it.
“They should start complaining too, the students should support us and then we will solve the problem quicker.”
Teaching support lecturer Margaret Wilson says the employer’s proposal was an insult.
“I think we are working harder than ever and we are not being treated fairly and with dignity, we are good quality staff and they have to offer good remuneration and good conditions.”
She says she is concerned about the effects the action is having on students.
“It’s unnatural for teachers to be doing this to students. But in the end it’s going to impact on students if we can’t recruit teachers.”
Some of the TEU members also picketed at the Unitec Spring graduation ceremony at the Civic Centre, this was met with criticism by USU student president Greg Powell, who says while the USU is remaining neutral over the issue, he was disappointed they chose to strike at graduation.
He likened it to “standing up at your grandmother’s funeral with a picket sign to argue over the inheritance. There is a time and a place, it’s taking away the one day students get, and it’s lobbying students who have already left (Unitec).”
English language student Paula Aenga says his classes were cancelled for the day of the full strike, so with other students from his class, he made a study group. He says he was surprised to learn of the action as he was not informed of the strike before it happened.
He says whenever a student cannot make it to their class they have to inform the lecturer, but he felt it was unfair that the lecturers had not done the same for them.
“If they are striking they should let us know last night or yesterday for us to make decision (to come in). It is a waste of petrol.”
While business student Lisa Gray says she was well informed of the strike, she is concerned about the long term affects missing classes will have. Her classes were cancelled the week before the strike as well, due to illness.
“That means now we have missed out on three lectures for that class, we are getting a bit behind we don’t know when our assignment is due.
“We have missed out on information that could have been covered in three lectures potentially and also this one lecture we are missing out on.”
Unitec chief executive Dr Rick Ede says the action is “unfortunate”.
He says industrial action is not the answer to solving the issues and would like to see a resolution sooner rather than later to avoid disruptions.
“We had hoped that this could be avoided,” he says.
He says Unitec is trying to lessen the impact of the strike action on the students, and says it is difficult to tell the students in advance of the action.