Anastasios Panagiotelis
Universities should be committed to the creation and dissemination of knowledge for the public good. The corporatisation of our sector has imposed pressure to turn away from these ideals. Despite this trend, the people that actually do the research and teaching and those who support them in various roles, believe in academic values as much as ever. Therefore, the solution to the challenges we face is an organised, active and strategic workforce. In short, a participatory workplace democracy.
I am an Associate Professor in the Business School, have been an NTEU member for my entire working life and I was a member of the Branch Committee in my previous position at Monash University. The attack on 40-40-20 workloads for teaching and research academics has motivated me more than any other issue to run for Branch Committee at the University of Sydney. I have seen how opposition to this proposal has energised the workforce in the Business School, including colleagues who are not traditionally activists or even unionists. The proposed changes will fundamentally degrade the character of the University, lead to increased workload pressure on academic and professional staff already stretched to the limit, and in the worst case, encourage over-zealous managers to bully staff and attack academic freedom by threatening to unilaterally change the teaching-research balance of academics.
I acknowledge that the attack on 40-40-20 is only one issue and education focused, casual and professional staff are affected by other problems. However, all problems have a common source; a top-down managerial hierarchy focused on control. Our problems also have a common solution; a decentralised bottom-up University where workers have power. Managerial overreach has given us an opportunity to push for higher penetration of Union membership - representing, and empowering a growing, broad membership will be my priority if elected to Branch Committee.
Much of what we do as a Union revolves around campaigning during Enterprise Bargaining rounds. We also need to focus on what happens outside the bargaining period. It is not enough for the Union to win the right to have local workload committees, but the Union must have active members who ensure those committees are not a rubber stamp for management. It is not enough for a Union to react to the policies of management in a bargaining round, we must have a delegate structure that ensures we are in touch with every corner of the university and can be proactive in fighting for the core industrial issues that affect our members. It is not enough for a Union to hit the pickets every three years, we must formulate plans for industrial action through a variety of effective work bans and then pre-emptively organise the membership within any “pressure point” work areas. If elected to Branch Committee, I will push for these goals.
I believe a democratic Union engaged with its members is the only way to achieve a democratic University. The choice, often promulgated by management, between the interests of the University and the interests of its staff is a false one. We are the University. We should be respected and trusted to deliver on the vision of creating and disseminating knowledge for the public good.
