MESSAGE FROM ANUSA PRESIDENT BEN YATES
Dear Friends,
I write to you with a simple call: do not go to class tomorrow afternoon!
Tomorrow, for the first time in decades, staff at ANU will strike.
Staff have been forced to strike because ANU has failed them. ANU has refused to offer staff pay rises that will stay above the inflation rate, meaning ANU has refused to give staff certainty that their salaries will keep pace with the cost of living. ANU has also refused to provide guarantees of greater job security for staff on casual and sessional contracts, despite increased trends of staff working as casuals on zero hour contracts without benefits or security for years.
These are not exorbitant demands. They are humble demands coming from staff who have already weathered so much.
During the pandemic, ANU asked staff to defer a pay rise to avoid job losses. Just months later, ANU announced 465 job losses anyway. For years now, staff have been doing extra work to make up for the jobs ANU cut.
In every burden that staff shoulder, students also feel the consequences.
We know what those staff job losses look like to students. They look like courses being cut because the teachers are gone. They look like entire disciplines being shut down because they have been gutted by job losses. They look like basic administrative processes taking longer than before because there aren’t enough staff to do the task. They look like getting a couple of sentences of feedback on a major assignment because your tutor didn’t have time to give you anything more.
So why skip class tomorrow?
When staff have asked nicely, have come to the negotiating table in good faith, have pleaded and even begged, striking is all they have left. Make no mistake, many of your teachers, supervisors, tutors and support staff are devastated to walk off the job, to not teach their classes, to not be there to help you, but this is the only option they have left.
We have to show staff that we are with them, and that we recognise the shared interests we have. We have to stand with them because staff working conditions are student learning conditions.
Tomorrow, from midday in Kambri, the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) will hold a rally.
If you are on campus tomorrow, leave class, take a study break, walk out of your lecture and come to Kambri to show ANU that staff and students stand united!
I will see you there!
In solidarity,
Ben Yates