teu canterbury newsletter, july 2011
DESCRIPTION
Volume 3, Number 1, July 2011TRANSCRIPT
Volume 3, Number 1, July 2011
Northern Cavalry Arrives
TEU National Women’s Officer, Suzanne McNabb, has graciously agreed to
spend two days a week for the next month or four based out of TEU House
assisting our local Organisers with the TEU workload generated by the
post-earthquake environment, ongoing Change Proposals, subsequent
restructuring potential and such things as Delegate Training. The branch
appreciates the support given by our National Office and their recognition
of the current industrial climate down south.
Suzanne will be known to some Canterbury
University members from her earlier
involvement here particularly during the last
Arts restructuring exercise. She has already
organised and run a well-attended
Delegates’ training course for our local Reps
and Branch Committee. Sue will also be
advocating for our cleaner members at
Campus Living Villages to renew their
Collective Employment Agreement.
From the Branch President,
Megan Clayton
Although this is the
first newsletter of the
year, the events that
precede it have made
it among the busiest
for our members’
communication.
The earthquakes and their aftermath have
made email the mainstay of branch notices
for some time now, and I would like
sincerely to thank all the members who
have participated in the information
gathering the branch has done since
February.
Our challenges exist on two fronts now:
not only the ongoing processes of review
and restructuring in which TEU continues
to engage in order to advocate for its
members, but also threat of the loss of of
government funding support post-2012 for
our earthquake-affected institution.
All this occurs during a time when
members’ ability to do their work has, like
people all over the region, been
interrupted in the most profound and
wide-reaching of ways. The union slogan of
Tū Kotahi has had applications anticipated
by few.
This newsletter is an attempt to bring
some of the colour and even humour of
branch business to the attention of
members. The 2011 branch committee has
been as far flung by the earthquakes as the
wider membership, but has nonetheless
managed to complete the branch training
goals we set ourselves in mid-February,
with the delay of a few months.
Your organisers and representatives
remain available to you as ever. Please use
the contact information on the final page
of the newsletter if you have any questions
or queries about matters industrial,
professional or political.
PBRF
TEU National President Sandra Grey debates the issues associated with
the PBRF round and the effect of the earthquake on Canterbury academic
members. Biting their tongues as they await an opportunity to get their
two cents in are TEU Academic representatives Warwick Anderson and
Jack Heinemann. The concerns TEU has with the PBRF round are how best
to provide support and protection for our academic members affected by
the 2010-11 earthquakes in a manner that both indicates with reasonable
accuracy the effects suffered, does not cause undue hardship to carry out,
and above all supports equitable outcomes for members.
The process of consultation, lobbying and information sharing has been
complex but has had the effect of strengthening the connections between
the branch and national office (which has prepared TEU submissions to
TEC). It has also seen significant cooperation between the union and the
university in taking a position to the the Tertiary Education Commission
that best represents the regional situation.
2
From the Branch Photo Album
Ripeka Tamanui-Hurunui braves her chilly tent
office after the February visit of ‘Old Bucky’
rendered many campus offices uninhabitable.
In addition to her role as Māori Student Advisor,
Ripeka is the TEU Māori General Staff
representative
Aotahi Administrator-
Extraordinaire Christine
Deeming bedecked in her
colourful korowai at her recent
graduation ceremony.
The lonely vigil of a bizarre carpark protest. Some members go
to a lot of trouble and effort to make their views known. In the
finest traditions of ‘Critic & Conscience’ we found this mute
statement: “RIP - Education” emblazoned on a plastic
headstone amid a mound of fresh-dug loam. No one at TEU
House was game enough to prod about in the soil and uncover
who or what lay beneath… perhaps the stripped skeleton of
academic aspiration?
Green Member of Parliament David
Clendon and his Ngāpuhi work bag that so
impressed TEU Rep and child of the North Jo
Diamond. David met with Canterbury TEU
reps recently to discuss Government (lack
of) funding in tertiary education, the impact
of the earthquakes on the University and
our members and changes to industrial
legislation.
3
News from the Polytechnics
Christchurch Polytechnic bargaining is underway with
many clawbacks tabled by the employer. They include
employer control over four weeks of Discretionary
Leave that members use at their discretion after the
first two of years of employment. This is in addition to
their annual leave entitlements. The other major
clawback would dictate the average weekly duty time
at 40 hours per week instead of the current provisions
that allow the employer to require 34 or 36 hours duty
per week and being a salaried employee where most
members work well in excess of the hours required.
Tai Poutini Polytechnic have just learned that their
CEO’s five-year contract is not being renewed by their
Governing Council. (They typically are renewed for at
least a second term.) We believe this is a signal from
the Minister about how Government views the
number of ITPs in the Tertiary Sector. Bargaining is
also underway at this Institute. The employer claim
was a brand new simple and minimal document that
provided no protections for our members. We have
encouraged them to table claims that modify our
current CA rather than attempt a clean sweep.
Thankfully there was agreement to do so. We
continue bargaining in the second week of July.
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
bargaining is about to get underway at the beginning
of August. We are expecting significant changes to be
tabled by the employer. It remains one of the South
Island Regional ITPs that is attempting to forge closer
alliances with Otago, Southland Aoraki and Tai Poutini
Polytechnics.
Small PTEs such as PEETO, Design and Arts College
and Christchurch Academy are all operating in
different locations around the city until, for the former
two, their premises in the Central City Red Zone are
assessed. The Academy is still operating from part of
its premises in Aberdeen St whilst repairs are
undertaken in the Manchester St Campus. The
students these members are dealing with have had
significant impacts on their home living situations as
well.
General Staff Day 2011
Regardless of the current high workloads and pressures
on Committee and Orgs, the Branch decided it should still
go ahead with recognising the supportive principles of
General Staff Day, albeit at a lower level of activity than
in previous years. Gaby’s delectable soup selections and
Paul’s superbly buttered slabs of bread roll provided the
substance behind the many General Staff members who
took the opportunity to call into TEU House. The day is
targeted at publicly recognising the key and supportive
role General staff play in the success of a University, and
based on the theory that behind excellent Academics
there are excellent General staff. TEU was proud to see
the many faces, some not until then known to us, who
called in and we hope to see them and others again soon.
We also note that the Deputy Vice Chancellor Ian Town
also made the effort to call in and record his appreciation
of General Staff contribution in person.
Says it all, really...
4
Collective Employment Agreements:
Variations settled and ratification
underway
With our Collective Agreements having a three-
year term (expiry June 2012) the TEU and the
other University unions negotiated variations to
the wording of our Agreements. The next wage
increase (due in January 2012) will be based on
the cost of living increase for the September
quarter and is looking like 5+%, for which the
University has already budgeted.
While there were no monetary-based claims,
positive improvements include supporting TEU
Māori and Pasifika delegates’ recognition,
reinforcing the pre-2007 Academic Staff
retirement scheme, Union rights clauses, a
working party on coverage clauses with a view to
trying to combine them into only two Collective
Agreements rather than the current five,
meaningful investigation and debate into
Campus gender equity, fixing errors/wording
within current agreements, and a commitment
to try and address the negative issues associated
with Fixed Term Agreements.
TEU Treaty Training – Te Tiriti o Waitangi
L to R: Presenter Jim Anglem, Mere Skerrett (College of Education), Dave Lane (Library), Anne-Marie Brady (College of
Arts), Di Gordon-Burns (College of Education), Gaby Moore (TEU Organiser), and Jennifer Middendorf (College of Arts).
It’s all in the way you say it
We have had the terms “redundancy”, “downsizing”, “severance”, “employee superfluity”, “an embarrassment of personnel
riches, “payroll padding”, and now we have VC Rod Carr’s latest quote from the University Council Minutes
“…That up to 50 staff redundancies out of 3000 staff in any year was a small level of staff turnover and
represented a philosophy of disinvesting to reinvest…”
We are sure all those ex-employees now feel a whole lot better seeing as they are simply interest by-products of an
investment philosophy.
Campus Living
Campus Living Village’s negotiations are due to start in
July. We understand well-respected Manager Darel Hall
has been promoted and a new manager appointed. Darel
has proven an asset to both TEU and CLV and will be
genuinely missed. In addition to a senior restructuring of
the company CLV have raised a claim in regards to
consolidating their Massey University CLV site Collective
into a single national Collective. The Service & Food
Workers will be the other party.
L to R Campus Living Cleaner Delegates Veronica Weeks and
Adrienne Croton, Arts’ Christian Long, VP Jennifer Middendorf,
with TEU Org Gaby Moore and President Megan Clayton.
5
Co-location and centralisation: the return of the repressed for administrators
TEU was disappointed once again to receive a
change proposal, this time from the College
of Education, in which the reduction of
administrative functions, together with their
centralisation into a co-located hub, was put
forward as a source of efficiency for the
college. For the branch, if not the individual
members, this is a case of déja-vû.
Co-location belies the specialisation of
administrative work within the university, and
in particular the ways in which programme
and service adminstrators provide tailored
and wide-ranging support for particular
programme needs.
Despite working in lower-banded roles with increasingly generic position descriptions, administrators
across the university possess knowledge and skills that have depth as well as breadth, freeing other
colleagues to do their own work efficiently. The TEU remains sceptical of arguments as to the
fungibility of administrative roles and will continue to argue for the necessity of the employer’s
recognition of the specificity of this work.
Who can join TEU?
From time to time the organisers and senior
representatives hear the persistent rumour that heads
of departments/schools and other staff who perform
line management roles cannot join the union.
This is incorrect. The only staff member of the
university who cannot join the TEU is the Vice-
Chancellor: the employer. Senior managers, middle
managers, staff on individual employment agreements,
staff on fixed-term agreements, casual staff, part-time
staff, academic year-only staff, post-docs, postgrads
and undergraduates who work at the university … all
can join.
So if you know of a colleague who would like to join
but thinks they are ineligible, then you can advise
them of the truth: that they can sign up at
http://teu.ac.nz/join or with a printed membership
form which can be sent to them via the internal mail
(email [email protected] to request a
form). There are significant discounts for low-income
members and your colleagues can use
http://teu.ac.nz/join/subscriptions to calculate what
their fees might be.
Tū Kotahi: the TEU waiata
For use on all occasions!
Tū Kotahi
(Stand as one)
Tū Kaha
(Stand strong)
Tātou tātou e
(Everyone together)
Ngā piki; ngā heke
(In joy and sadness)
Tū Kotahi e
(Let’s stand together)
The TEU national website has links to audio
recordings of the waiata for your practising
convenience. The 2009 version is at:
http://teu.ac.nz/2009/07/tu-kotahi
and you can listen to the 2010 version sung by
members of Te Uepū (among whose voices
some Canterbury branch reps are audible)
here:
http://teu.posterous.com/tu-kotahi
6
Contact your organisers
UC Members ITP Sector
UC TEU Branch Officers
President Vice-President Secretary/Treasurer Megan Clayton Jennifer Middendorf Tim O’Sullivan
Bridging Programmes School of Humanities Central Library Lending Services
Extension 4931 Extension 6212 Extension 8826
Gabrielle Moore
021 190 2396
Extension 6485
Paul Corliss
021 859 129
Extension 6288
Phil Dodds
027 44 99 422
Extension 6768
Consultation as some would like to
see it...
Māori & Pasifika - Positive aspects of CEA currently being ratified
The following clauses, provided the terms of settlement are ratified by members, will signal a most positive outcome for
University and TEU negotiators. Firmly pushed by the TEU, the employer’s willingness to so strongly acknowledge their
obligations and commitments in these two areas bodes well for future working relationships with Māori and Pasifika
members. All parties are to be congratulated.
“The parties affirm the principle of according high priority to maintaining and advancing a Te Tiriti o Waitangi
partnership at all levels within the University. In regards to Te Tiriti’s application to the principles underlying
Clause [H.10/H.9], the parties agree that aspects of this objective can be best attained by actively acknowledging
and effectively encouraging the key role played at TEU member level, and recognising the special and cultural
role, of the Te Toi Ahurangi/Te Uēpu representative.
The Employer will support paid participation of a Te Toi Ahurangi/Te Uēpu representative in branch and related
activity of the union within and beyond the workplace. The TEU will advise the Employer (in particular, the Senior
Management Team and PVCs) of the name and occupation of the approved representative. The TEU will also
consult with, and provide prior notice to, the Employer in regards to any meetings or demands that require the
input and/or presence of the TEU Māori representative.
The Employer will support paid participation of a nominated Pasifika representative in branch and related activity
of the union within and beyond the workplace as a means of acknowledging and effectively encouraging the key
role played at TEU member level, and recognising their special Pasifika cultural role. The TEU will advise the
Employer (in particular, the Senior Management Team and PVCs) of the name and occupation of the approved
representative. The TEU will also consult with, and provide prior notice to, the Employer in regards to any
meetings or demands that require the input and/or presence of the TEU Pasifika representative.”
TEU Delegate Training Underway Some 15 TEU representatives undertook a day’s
training under the expert tuition of Suzanne
McNabb. All reports have been very positive, even
from the ‘old stagers’ who all indicated that that in
addition to learning some valuable skills, they had
been reinvigorated by the enthusiasm of the newer,
and sometimes younger, delegates attending.
L to R: Pasifika General Staff rep Marion McNeill,
with cleaner Delegates Kay Duncan and Kelly Ellmers-
Brady