Academic staff at the University of Auckland have voted to escalate their industrial action to include possible lightning strikes and withholding exam marks. Meanwhile PBRF strike action also continues, where many academic staff are refusing to submit their research portfolios in protest at the university’s attempt to remove important academic working conditions from their collective agreement.

The union has sent the Deans letters outlining the numbers of staff in each faculty who have signed the pledge not to comply with PBRF-related activities. Academic members, with the support of general staff and members from AUT, MIT and Unitec, are continuing daily pickets outside the vice-chancellor’s office.

TEU organiser Jane Adams says members will not be undertaking any additional strike action, despite the vote to escalate action, until after a high-level meeting with university management on 20 June. This meeting will involve the assistance of the Department of Labour’s Mediation Service.

The union has also filed in the Employment Relations Authority to facilitate negotiations and is currently in mediation.

As part of the actions being taken TEU is also writing to international unions asking them to inform their members about the university’s attack on academic conditions and the two-tier pay and rewards structure at the university that discriminates against union members.

“Given that the university recruits approximately 50 percent of academic staff from overseas, it makes sense for us to inform unions in countries from which the majority of our academic recruits are drawn about our campaign,” said Ms Adams. “There are implications for overseas academics thinking of joining the university.”