Universities are vital elements of society, allowing people to further their skills and knowledge in areas of interest they find fulfilling. They are also centres of research and conceptual development, giving space to those who seek to enrich society with the production of new knowledge. For as long as there has been organised education, there have been universities in some form or another. Each successive generation of lecturers, tutors and researchers contributes to the development of their discipline, supported by the organisational and administrative work of non-teaching staff, who keep the university functioning how it should. Without this balance, universities cannot provide proper education and support to those who attend them, and their entire purpose is undermined.
On 17th of July, until the 21st of July, Deakin workers will be conducting a teaching ban, including a full day work stoppage on the 20th of July, in order to continue their fight for a new enterprise agreement. Currently, many of the teaching staff are stuck doing unpaid work under huge amounts of pressure just to maintain the quality of the units they teach. They have no workload protections, no working from home rights, are highly casualised (and therefore lack job and wage security), and are not provided with the time and resources they need to do their work. This all comes after Deakin management sacked hundreds of staff during the pandemic. The decision to conduct industrial action comes after a long and gruelling process of negotiation with Deakin management, who have been dismissive of staff concerns and demands, and who have not engaged with the process in good faith.
Deakin is not the only university recently to have issues with poor conditions and inadequate pay. At the University of Sydney, staff have conducted the longest running industrial action at a university in Australian history for the past two years (Cassidy 2023). Workers at the University of Melbourne, Monash, and La Trobe have gone on strike over casualisation, workloads and wage theft (Hare 2023). At Curtin University staff have also conducted industrial action, including strikes and work bans (Curtin Student Guild 2023).
This is all indicative of an industry that has become toxic to the very things that underpin its existence: education and intellectual development. How can we expect tertiary education to fulfil its purpose when the very people who are meant to provide it are underpaid, overworked, and lack basic rights and privileges in their workplace? Instead of a functional education system, focus has been placed on churning through degrees for profit, and reducing worker’s rights as much as possible to save a buck. In just a few short decades, Australia has gone from free university education to teachers having to strike because their rights at work have been eroded to the point that they can no longer provide quality education.
Geelong Anarchist Communists fully support Deakin staff striking for their rights at work, and all university workers around the country who have been involved in industrial action.
A robust, accessible, and quality education system is a central part of a just and equitable society. Capitalism is already hostile to the concept of education for education’s sake, and the global shift towards neoliberal economic and social perspectives that has occurred over the last few decades has exacerbated the erosion that was already taking place throughout tertiary education in this country. We must fight against this with everything we have, or we risk further giving over our centres of knowledge and self-development to those who would simply turn them into production lines for corporations and private industry.
Geelong Deakin staff will be rallying at Deakin Waterfront campus on the 20th of July at 3pm (Gheringhap St entrance, near the cube), and it’s vital that the Geelong community lends its support. Deakin is one of the biggest employers in the region, and a successful and well supported campaign will set the standard for workplace conditions throughout the city. Casualisation, wage theft and overwork are all issues that touch on many industries, which many workers in Geelong experience – especially Deakin students, who are often employed in highly casualised and under-unionised jobs such as hospitality and retail.
Solidarity with Deakin workers, and all workers fighting for their rights, today and every day!
See you on the pickets.
If you’d like to support the strike, or would simply like more information on the industrial action taking place, follow this link:
– (nteu-deakin.org)
Article by Levi H.
Resources
- C Cassidy (3 April 2023) ‘‘They know what’s at stake’: inside the longest-running industrial action at an Australian university | Australian universities | The Guardian’, The Guardian, accessed 13 July 2023.
- J Hare (1 May 2023) ‘Academics to strike over casualisation, wage theft (afr.com)’, Australian Financial Review, accessed 13 July 2023.
- Curtin Student Guild (2023) Industrial Action (curtin.edu.au), Curtin Student Guild, Curtin University, accessed 13 July 2023.
Anarchist Communist Federation - Geelong 