Branch Leadership Hui – reflections from the Co-Presidents.

by Garrick Cooper, Te Tumu Whakarae—Māori | National Co-President—Māori

Last week the Branch Leadership hui was held in Te Whanganui a Tara. It was a great opportunity for Ti and I, as incoming Co-Presidents, to meet new and established branch leadership members and teams. We went into the hui cautiously excited!

Scheduled at one of the busiest times of the year for the tertiary sector, we were thrilled so many of our branch leaders were able to commit to attending and engage in dialogue with one another.

Our new leadership team are committed to becoming an organising union and bringing our collective power to bear on decision makers in parliament and institutions up and down the country.

Harnessing our collective power necessarily leads to a greater flow of information throughout our organisation, and with those advocates and representatives of related causes and organisations. We see honest, sometimes tricky, conversations amongst ourselves as essential to building a strong platform from which to launch our advocacy and activism for better work conditions, a fair wage for all, and proper resourcing to support quality tertiary education that all New Zealanders both deserve and need.

To that end we were glad you took up that challenge! We heard branch leadership teams challenging TEU leadership to make sure we articulate the concerns across the range of sectors we represent. We heard branch leadership teams speak honestly about some of the challenges at the branch level trying to encourage membership to engage more actively in union initiatives, campaigns and projects. We heard branch leadership teams talk about some of the resourcing and servicing challenges unique to smaller branches and those in the regions. From our perspective it’s frank and honest kōrero that is essential for addressing and collectively designing solutions to the challenges in our union and the sector.

We have a busy and important year in front of us all, and it is of course an election year. We have a government to change, working conditions to improve, and lives to change through education.

The TEU Annual Conference is in May – in the meantime, Ti and I look forward to engaging in more dialogue as we start to make our way around the motu visiting branches.