Collective bargaining initiated at three unis.

Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union has written to the Vice Chancellors of Te Wānanga Aronui O Tamaki Makau Rau | Auckland University of Technology, Te Herenga Waka | Victoria University, and Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki | Lincoln University to initiate the start of the process to negotiate the renewal of the major collective employment agreements at those institutions.

Iana Gritcan, a member of the TEU bargaining team at AUT says “as always, our number one priority will be ensuring our salary keeps pace with rising household and living costs. Our members expect, at the very least, that the spending power of their pay is maintained and they are not expected to accept an effective pay cut. We have also seen our employer attempt to claw back conditions in recent years, and we will do everything in our power to prevent them from succeeding.”

Deborah Poi, a TEU activist at Lincoln says “our university has the lowest pay scales in the sector, so that will be a major focus for us in bargaining. We hope this will be urgently addressed by management, especially considering the world class research and graduates we produce.”

Hannah Jenkin, Branch President at Te Herenga Waka says “at Victoria University, we know our staff are feeling the cost of living crisis and intensified workloads, so we need results that mean they are appropriately compensated for their mahi. We are hoping this can be achieved with a collaborative, issues-based approach to bargaining that we saw possible at the end of our last bargaining round.”

Te Pou Ahurei Takirua – Ahumahi | Assistant National Secretary – Industrial, Daniel Benson-Guiu says "as always, our negotiations are coordinated, so branch leadership teams have been and will continue to be brought together to work collectively and build on member wins achieved elsewhere."

"We are stronger together, which is why our union's focus is on building our campaigns at branches and nationally to shine a light on the central issue, which is our members aren't properly valued for the work they do, and institutions are too poorly funded by government to make the major improvements necessary. That’s why our focus is at both the University leadership level and at the feet of government."

"The focus of this government has been to attack Māori and gender diverse staff, create austerity, reduce pay offers, turn back on automatic pay progression and on taking money away from our working women.”

“We will work hard to represent all TEU members at these negotiations."