About
Kia ora! I’m Lesley Francey, president of the New Zealand Tertiary Education Union Te Hautū Kahurangi o Aotearoa (TEU).
Our union represents the interests of more than 10,000 workers employed in the tertiary education sector across New Zealand. The TEU is the main union in our sector. our membership includes teachers and workers employed in all occupations in universities, polytechnics, institutes of technology, wānanga, other tertiary education providers and allied organisations. It was formed this year from a merger of AUS and ASTE.
TEU members work together collectively to safeguard and enhance our industrial, professional and educational goals, including:
- negotiating collective employment agreements so that you have the best possible pay and working conditions;
- advising and representing you with employment-relationship problems;
- monitoring and acting on issues that affect you in your workplace;
- improving the quality of tertiary education in New Zealand;
- developing specialist research and policy to promote the interests of tertiary education workers; and
- safeguarding the rights of Māori members and meeting the union’s responsibilities to wider Māori communities through the promotion of and adherence to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
We are a democratic union with strong membership participation and governed by an elected council.
The TEU is a new union for all staff; everybody who works in tertiary education. We are a democratic organisation and we stand up together for what we believe in.
Tū Kotahi – Because we are stronger together
Together we are a stronger voice for all tertiary education workers. We believe in working hard for the students in our institutions, and being respected and paid fairly for that work. We believe in a high quality, public education system that gives everyone a chance, and helps to build a strong economy and strong communities. We believe in working people working together to make things fairer and better for everyone.
Find out more about us:
We’re a new union but we have a long history.
We’re a democratic union with structure and groups to hear and represent the issues of all members.” We also have a set of rules and constitution that define our democratic principles.
We actively work to promote the interests of women and Māori
We negotiate dozens of collective agreements improving the pay and conditions of our members. We also have active branches of members at institutions around the country
Our members help develop policies on a range of areas that allow us to influence government and tertiary education institutions.
We have a range of publications to keep members informed, including our widely read weekly, Tertiary Update, Kua Rangona for union activists and media releases on important issues
