Support TEU members at Northtec, Unitec, WinTec, Whitireia, BOPP and WITT

The six polytechnics whose staff voted last week to take industrial action unless their employer came back with an improved offer yesterday have completely failed to respond in any kind of meaningful way to the TEU. This means that strike is now inevitable this week at all six polytechnics. Industrial action will include an all day strike tomorrow at all six polytechnics.

The six polytechnics involved are NorthTec, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, Waikato Institute of Technology, and Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki, Whitireia Polytechnic and Unitec. 950 staff at these six polytechnics have been in negotiations for six months now.

The impeding industrial action is a response to employer attempts to increase teaching days for academic staff from 185 per year to 204. Employers are also only offering a one percent salary increase with no back-dating and a 24 month term from the date of signing (effectively one percent for two and half years). “ ” In some sites non-union staff have received between 4 and 6 percent backdated to January 2009.

Log on to” our online forum to send a message of support to the 950 TEU members who will be striking tomorrow:

http://tertiaryeducationunion.ning.com/forum/topics/strike-at-six-itps

Back the Redundancy Protection Bill

At a time of rising unemployment, hundreds of thousands of kiwis and their families have no financial protection against redundancy. This leaves us nearly alone in the developed world in having no right to redundancy compensation if we are laid off due to no fault of our own.

A new bill before parliament would protect Kiwi workers who are facing hard times by helping to tide them over until they find a new job. But it needs the Government’s support to pass. We’re calling on John Key to honour his promise to help Kiwis through the recession by backing the Redundancy Protection Bill. You can support the bill by joining the Facebook group, signing the petition, sending a postcard, lobbying John Key and more…

Keep in touch with TEU

Kua Rangona: Action Bulletin is simple weekly actions you can take to support fellow union members. You can now subscribe to receive Kua Rangona by email or feed reader. Please” sign up and encourage fellow TEU members to” join you. Want to know more – have you considered joining us online at Ning, Facebook, Twitter or Flickr?