This afternoon the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW, Professor Fred Hilmer emailed all students with his latest spin on the ongoing dispute between UNSW and the NTEU over pay and work conditions.
Until now I have been sitting on the fence in the dispute. Having been only studying at the university for six months I did not have enough information to form a complete opinion. However, given the actions of the Vice-Chancellor over the last few days I have now come down in full support of the union.
In the email and the accompanying video the Vice-Chancellor fails to address one of the major issues in the dispute, long term casual contracts for research staff. At the moment staff can be at the university for ten years or longer and never have a contract that provides them employment for more than a year. There are very few companies that I know that keep staff on perpetual fixed term contracts. Always having the threat of not having a job is not going to make a workforce very happy.
The actions of the Vice-Chancellor of UNSW over the last week in relation to the result bans have not sought to provide a quick resolution to the industrial dispute, instead they have sought to deliberately make it worse. Locking senior academics out of the university is a really petty move and will only cause the ill feeling between the academic staff and the university administration to increase.
If UNSW really want this dispute to go away they need to lift their lockout of staff and they need to focus on the issues that really matter rather than spinning amateur videos to students to try and win hearts and minds. The problem with trying to win hearts and minds is students are very thicked skinned and we can see right through the bullshit.
P.S. Next time you make a video to distribute to students from the Vice-Chancellor at least make sure the website address is right. myunsw.edu.au does not exist. It is my.unsw.edu.au
Dear students
You would be aware of the National Tertiary Education Union bans on the transmission of exam results and student assessment for semester one.
While only a small percentage of staff is taking part in this industrial action, we are concerned about the impact this action is having on students who have not yet received their results and we are working to minimize any disruption. I would appreciate you taking the time to watch this two minute video so I can let you know what measures the University has put in place. I’ve also taken the opportunity to give you all a brief background on some of the issues involved in this dispute.
Yours sincerely
Professor Fred Hilmer
President and Vice-Chancellor
