Smart Strikes to Disrupt University of Canterbury

association-of-university-staff

Thu Aug 11 2005 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)

Smart Strikes to Disrupt University of Canterbury

Thursday, 11 August 2005, 10:10 am
Press Release: Association of University Staff

10 August 2005

Industrial conflict at the University of Canterbury escalated today with members of the Association of University Staff (AUS) agreeing on a raft of new measures to advance their claim for the crisis in university salaries to be addressed.

A new approach, dubbed a “smart strike” by the AUS, the campaign will cause significant disruption to the final week of the third term.

The actions include:

- Staff will not teach for up to 8 hours in the coming week, striking a lecture at a time.

- Staff will not submit end-of-year exam papers that are normally collated at this time.

- Staff will not submit students’ final grades to Registry.

- Staff will withdraw from participation in the current PBRF round.

- Staff will not implement Catalyst, the new student services software package.

- Staff will withdraw their co-operation with academic committees and ignore compliance requests from management.

- Staff will work to rule, go slow, and refuse any overtime work.

- Staff will clog communication networks of the Vice-Chancellor and senior management.

AUS members have each lost two days pay in strikes to date, and have been denied a pay increase that non-union members have been receiving.

AUS Canterbury Branch President, David Small, said that this anti-union tactic is serving to increase the resolve of staff at the university, the majority of whom are union members.

Dr Small accused the Vice-Chancellor, Roy Sharp, of maintaining an irresponsible silence in the current dispute. “Roy Sharp is at the helm of a public institution that is an important asset to the people of Canterbury”, he said. “The people of this region are entitled to know why he is driving it onto the rocks by pushing university staff to unprecedented levels of alienation”.

ENDS

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

a.supporter:hover {background:#EC4438!important;} @media screen and (max-width: 480px) { #byline-block div.byline-block {padding-right:16px;}}

Using Scoop for work?

Scoop is free for personal use, but you’ll need a licence for work use. This is part of our Ethical Paywall and how we fund Scoop. Join today with plans starting from less than $3 per week, plus gain access to exclusive Pro features.

Join Pro Individual Find out more

Find more from Association of University Staff on InfoPages.