We Are The University

TEU Update - 7 March

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Fri Mar 07 2025 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Attachment: TEU_UoA Poster_A4.pdf

Tēnā koutou kātoa

Solidarity Strike

I stand tomorrow, not alone

But with whānau, firm and strong

For those whose mahi builds our home

Yet caught in tides too low, too long.

The living wage — that moana deep

Must rise for all, not just the few

While some still struggle in the deep

Others drift on waters blue.

Taumata Teitei calls us high

Our values, not mere empty words

But anchored where our mana lies

In depths where justice must be heard.

So tomorrow I join the flow

A droplet in the mighty vai

Till rising tides lift all we know

Kia kaha, together we rise high.

[A group of people writing on a sidewalk AI-generated content may be incorrect.]

Yesterday, on a beautiful early-autumn morning, several hundred staff (with students in support) turned out to voice our frustration with the VC and her bargaining delegates at the strike rally. Speakers from the Labour Party, WATU, Working Students Association, and, of course, TEU made clear why the crowd was gathered. They decried the inequities of Tupu and the long-run danger of capitulating to a management team dismissive of calls to pay a living wage to all staff. Strikers marched to strategic sites to leave enduring (for at least an hour or so) messages in chalk where new students could gain an immediate impression of the union’s opinion of university leadership. We targeted the Clock Tower and Hiwa, which is a $400million reminder of where priorities lie for the keepers of the purse-strings. The chalking was popular and fun. As one of our members posted to Viva Engage “It's what a university needs: free speech, dissent and creativity.”

Your bargaining teams are meeting to discuss the next steps at the bargaining table and in the campaign. In the meantime, remember to stick up the attached poster – and send through your pics of your creative poster placement!

Pay Docking Update: The employer has noted that the pay dock will not show in your pay until the pay day after next. They have also clarified that you will only be docked for 3.5 hours (rather than 4) if you would normally have a lunch break over that time. It is important to check that you are not docked more than allowed – particularly if you are a part time or shift worker. If you get docked incorrectly, raise it with your Academic Head/ Manager or HR and let an organiser know if it is not fixed a.s.a.p. You can also get in touch with them now if you have concerns.

The organisers have also confirmed that GTAs, TAs and Causal staff will not have their pay docked. Again, contact HR or your Academic Head if there are problems, and follow up with an organiser if needed. Nicole sent an email about Pay Docking and the Strike Fund to all members on 05/03/2025, with details on how to apply. You can apply now, although the fund won’t come through until you also submit a payslip showing the docked pay. If you’d like to donate to the strike fund, email strikefund@teu.ac.nz and let us know.

International Women’s Day 2025 This morning in Old Government House a TEU-sponsored breakfast featuring a panel and discussion on women leading universities was held. The breakfast also launched the 25 for 25 campaign, focused on closing the gender pay gap at the University of Auckland. More on the discussion in next week’s update.

Collective Success in Senate: On Monday Senate met to vote on the proposed Law and Business School merger. Staff from the Faculty of Law, supported by others throughout the University, gave a very strong argument for why this merger would be a terrible idea for Law teaching and research, leading to a 70% vote against the plan to merger see Law News article. Given the academic nature of the proposal, Council moving forward with the merger despite Senates’ vote would be highly problematic.

Casual Staff/ TAs and Hono: If you are told that you have been overpaid during the pay system shut down period, and are asked to pay back the money, the organisers strongly advise that you do not agree to pay back anything at this point. Instead say that you are going to seek advice from your union and get in touch with Nicole and Yasmine.

Changes (and not for the better) in Student Disability Services coverage for in-person tests. Historically, SDS has helped to organise support for students requiring extra time or rooms with fewer students during tests. New communication indicates that SDS will now only be offering specialist support (e.g., readers/writers). This means that there will be greater workloads (and costs) associated with running in-person tests. This is reminiscent of other recent changes within the University wherein “savings” are made in one arena by passing on the costs to others. We can confidently say that the University should be removing barriers to having in-person assessments, not adding more barriers. This change of policy by the University means that course coordinators who seek to have in-person tests for reasons of academic integrity will now need to schedule additional rooms and pay additional invigilators. Our concern is that coordinators will eventually come to the conclusion that doing what is best for their students (and the reputation of our awarded degrees) is no longer feasible given time and budgetary constraints, and that invigilated tests will become even more of a rarity.

Yet another chore foisted on to academic staff? Some of you may have been advised that the University’s timetabling systems are moving to an “ecosystem” called “Software as a Service solutions”. Needless to say, this includes an invitation to course coordinators, HODs etc to partake of …yes…training webinars. As is standard now, this comes with promises of enhanced accuracy, efficiency, and smoothness, but no evidence of a workload implications for affected staff. For an account in complete bureaucratese, see Timetabling scheduling ecosystem - The University of Aucklandhttps://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/intranet/stay-informed/improvement-projects-programmes/timetabling-scheduling-ecosystem.html.

A Digital Marketing course in Business School uses AI as tutors. Students wonder where the humans are and why they have to pay regular tuition rates. University of Auckland students criticise introduction of artificial intelligence tutors in business and economics course - NZ Heraldhttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/university-of-auckland-students-criticise-introduction-of-artificial-intelligence-tutors-in-business-and-economics-course/EKNMREEVPZEY7E2P7YNUYKHWUY/

Around Aotearoa

Never mind the evidence. TEU member Tim Welch (Urban Planning): False economies: the evidence shows higher speed limits don’t make financial sensehttps://theconversation.com/false-economies-the-evidence-shows-higher-speed-limits-dont-make-financial-sense-251138. See also

Two-thirds of New Zealand’s gross domestic product economy is the service industry. TEU member Kate Nicholls (AUT) on NZ’s barriers to economic growth: short-term thinking, political concentration and policy flip-flopshttps://theconversation.com/nzs-barriers-to-economic-growth-short-term-thinking-political-concentration-and-policy-flip-flops-249007.

“Whether we want to accept that AIs can think about things really depends on whether we want to attribute to AIs human-like emotional responses to things, such as desire.” TEU member Edwin Mares (VUW) on why AIs are mimics not semantic beings - Newsroomhttps://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/05/ais-are-mimics-not-semantic-beings/

Other reminders

Please consider sharing this and subsequent Updates (electronically or print) with colleagues who may benefit from knowing what we are doing on behalf of all staff.

Brent Burmester TEU Branch Co-President (Academic)| Department of Management and International Business | Room 4122, Level 4, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland 1142, New Zealand | Ext 84559 DDI +64 9 923 4559

University of Auckland Branch Committee, Te Hautū Kahurangi Tertiary Education Union. Join your unionhttps://teu.ac.nz/join - it's your right! Got a question? Let me know.