Experience and Commitment
Experience
I joined the NTEU in 1999 as a casual at the University of Wollongong. During my next seven years of insecure employment I became active in the union, participating in several strike actions and serving as a casual liaison rep on the Wollongong Uni Branch.
Like many casuals I worked several jobs at once, spent time on the dole and worked across multiple universities. I then worked in successive fixed-term contracts at the University of Sydney before gaining full-time employment as an academic in the Political Economy Department in 2008.
Commitment
For ten years, I served as a member of the University of Sydney NTEU Branch Committee, including several terms as Vice President (Academic) until I was elected Assistant Secretary NSW in 2018. I have also been a representative to the NTEU Division and National Councils, and I am currently a representative to the National Executive.
Fighting Neoliberalism
As an Associate Professor in Political Economy, I have studied the history of neoliberalism and how it has spread across the world. However, the best lessons on neoliberalism are those I’ve learned through struggles against managements’ attempts to smash our union and strip our conditions.
In response to management attacks on our enterprise agreement, I founded the NTEU Sydney Uni campaign committee in 2008 which helped to develop a campaigning focus for the branch. This led to strong and successful campaigns and industrial action to deliver three sector-leading enterprise agreements (2009, 2013, 2017), successful fights against job cuts, and a large increase in membership.
Achievements
Since October 2018 I have been the Assistant Secretary of the NTEU NSW where I have:
overseen significant growth in our membership
led the expansion of our delegate training program, with hundreds of members participating in training to build union power across NSW
driven the Division’s wage theft campaign, which, working with branches and casual members, has led to a wage theft audit at UNSW and successful underpayments claims at Sydney and Macquarie. There is much more work to do on this vital issue.
worked closely with members at every branch across NSW to protect jobs and advocated for higher education workers, and for full public funding of universities in the media, to politicians and to the community more generally.
The COVID crisis has highlighted the need for real job security and protections against over-work for university staff, and this must be the union’s focus in the upcoming round of enterprise bargaining.