At a meeting held today Victoria University staff resolved to step up their industrial campaign, in response to an unacceptable 1.8% salary offer and the continuing erosion of staff employment conditions. This action includes delaying the submission of student grades, the withdrawal of goodwill, and holding a stopwork meeting scheduled for December 13th. Staff also voted to escalate industrial action until their claims were settled.
Reece Walters, AUS Campaign Co-ordinator, said "Staff at Victoria University are angry. The outcome of this meeting sends a clear message to Victoria University's Vice-Chancellor and the government that our staff mean business."
A boycott of the December graduation ceremony was seriously discussed at the meeting. This was put aside in favour of attending the graduation ceremony en masse.
Reece Walters commented: "This action sends two messages. First, to our students, that we are proud of and committed to them. And secondly, a large staff presence at graduation will serve to publicly state our opposition to Vice-Chancellor Stuart McCutcheon as well as Steve Maharey for their failure to value university staff."
Future industrial actions will also include picketing and petitioning. Staff will further discuss the likelihood of strike action at the stopwork meeting on December 13th.
Contacts: Reece Walters work (04) 463-5233 x8559 home (04) 380-6108
e-mail reece.walters@vuw.ac.nz
or
Tony Quinn work (04) 463-6187 home (04) 477-0539
e-mail tony.quinn@vuw.ac.nz