Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union members will rally outside Te Wānanga Aronui O Tamaki Makau Rau | Auckland University of Technology’s Council meeting on Monday afternoon, a day that a decision on the future of up to 150 staff is expected to be made.
TEU’s branch president at AUT, David Sinfield, is particularly frustrated with Vice Chancellor Damon Salesa’s refusal to directly answer questions about a restructuring that’s set to lead to over 200 job losses.
“We wrote to Professor Salesa over a month ago to ask him to front up in person and tell our members to our faces why he wants to axe so many of their jobs. It took him over a month to reply, and he still has not met with us.”
“Our members are extremely upset, and deserve better from their Vice Chancellor. Monday’s rally will be their chance to deliver their message directly to Damon Salesa’s employer.”
“Two weeks ago, the Vice Chancellor celebrated AUT’s high Times Higher Education ranking ‘for research impact and international outlook’ by acknowledging “the huge amount of hard work put in by our staff…” – Making 230 of them redundant and offering effective pay cuts to the rest not only makes a mockery of his stated gratitude but it puts the future of our university at risk. Council must intervene.”
The rally will take place on the Corner of Symonds and St Paul streets from 3-4pm on Monday 31st October.