“Extraordinarily damaging” strike to continue at University of Auckland.

The wait continues for some Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland students who have still not received their final grades as academic staff who are members of Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union extend their strike again.

The strike, a ban on entering and releasing student marks or course marks into any student management system, first commenced at 7pm on Monday 14 November and is now due to end at 11:59pm on Monday 5 December.

In an email to staff late yesterday afternoon, Vice Chancellor Dawn Freshwater wrote “The cumulative effect of this strike action has created a large backlog of work that the University is, and has been, addressing as an urgent priority. It has also had an extraordinarily damaging impact on many of our students, raising concerns about entry into limited access courses for 2023; securing offers to study at universities overseas; and securing offers of employment. Many of our international students also need confirmation of their grades to secure their student visas.”

TEU Kaiwhakahaere | Organiser Nicole Wallace says “we don’t want this action to continue to impact students and we’re disappointed that the Vice-Chancellor did not respond to the TEU offer to withdraw the previous strike notice if she withdrew the employer proposal to remove valuable employment conditions for future staff.”

“Dawn Freshwater appears to be shifting the blame to TEU members for a problem entirely of her making. She can end the strike today by instructing her negotiating team to stop trying to force our members to betray future colleagues by removing their terms and conditions of employment in exchange for an effective pay cut for current staff.”

Meanwhile, a group of University of Auckland students started a petition on Wednesday, in support of staff strike action, which has already attracted over 500 signatures.