A 24-hour strike from the NTEU’s University of Melbourne branch is set to take place on October 12, followed by a week-long teaching ban. 

On Monday, students who attend campus can expect picket lines at the entrances of the University, they may be offered leaflets and asked to support the Union. An on-campus demonstration will also occur. This is the second NTEU University of Melbourne strike this semester. 

“We want people to know that… the University is not a happy place”, said Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Advancing Journalism and NTEU member, Dr Jeff Sparrow. 

“These are not hard pickets”, said NTEU’s University of Melbourne Branch President, Elizabeth “Liz” Strakosch. “The pickets are definitely not intended to stop students from coming onto campus” and are more to inform and educate students and passerbys of the struggles of University staff. 

As a result of the teaching ban, Week 11 tutorials and lectures that are hosted by NTEU members have been cancelled, and between Tuesday to Friday no new content will be taught within tutorials. However, other academic staff duties will continue uninterrupted, such as student consultations and marking. 

Strakosch added that “ the idea is to take industrial action that does have some disruption and have some impact on the University, but does not interrupt the progress of students through their subjects and degrees.”

A spokesperson for the University stated that management does not “anticipate that all staff members who are union members will participate in the action”. In the case that the strike obstructs the delivery of teaching and learning material, the University has ensured that “alternative arrangements to enable students to continue to have access to content will be made”.

On October 5, the University of Melbourne welcomed a new Vice Chancellor (VC), Carolyn Evans, who took over the role from the interim VC, Glyn Davis. 

The Union response to the VC change seems to be one of cautious optimism. 

As previous VC, Glyn Davis, was only fulfilling the role temporarily, Strakosch is “looking forward to talking to Carolyn Evans and having someone coming in with long-term leadership commitment.” 

Evans’ past research has focused on academic freedom, an issue of concern for the NTEU during these enterprise agreement (EA) negotiations. 

Evans was also previously the VC for Griffith University, and during EA negotiations in 2022, she ran a non-union ballot in which an EA was directly put to staff without Union oversight. It was rejected by academic staff yet accepted by professional staff. 

The NTEU Branch for Griffith labelled the move “unnecessarily hostile”. 

In an inaugural statement, Chancellor Jane Hanson AO said that VC Evans “brings a deep understanding of this institution” and will continue to build “on the foundations of Strategy 2030”. 

Strategy 2030 is an outline of the University’s vision and aims for the remaining years of the 2020s, highlighting ambitions like “improv[ing] student experience” and “empowering our people”. 

NTEU member, Dr Sparrow, describes that staff workloads remain central to the NTEU’s industrial action, saying that “it's very rare to find people who are not working in the mornings, who are not working when they get home, who are not working on the weekends”. 

The academic workload committee that the NTEU’s University of Melbourne branch is proposing would function similar to the Monash University model, yet the majority of committee members would consist of non-managerial staff. 

Upon announcing Monday’s strike, the NTEU and University have reportedly “entered a period of intense bargaining”, according to Strakosch, “  so if that continues then we're quite hopeful [EA negotiations] definitely could be concluded this year”.

A University spokesperson has insisted that “the University will continue to work collaboratively and constructively with the unions”. 

UMSU has officially endorsed the strike, offering students an avenue to support staff.