UTS Professional Staff Agreement 2014 negotiations update

Dear CPSU members

A meeting was held today to update members on negotiations for the UTS Professional Staff Agreement 2014.

Members were briefed on the current position of enterprise bargaining by the bargaining team and PSA/CPSU Director of Industrial Andrew Holland.

At the conclusion of the meeting CPSU members moved and passed the following motion:

"This meeting of CPSU UTS Branch members congratulate the CPSU UTS bargaining team for shifting the University to where we have an acceptable offer on the table for professional staff. The meeting empowers the bargaining team to endorse the final draft as long as it contains all agreed changes."

After the bargaining team is satisfied that the final document includes all agreed changes, we expect the university will put the agreement to ballot. The final agreement needs to be made available to all staff covered by it for a period of 7 days before voting can commence. This is to allow staff time to read the document and to seek clarification/advice on anything they are unsure of.

The CPSU bargaining team would like to thank members for their input and patience during the bargaining process.

 

Yours in Union,

Rosa Bow

Branch President

CPSU EB7 Negotiator

Ask your work colleagues to join the CPSU today at https://membership.psa.asn.au/join/ 

PSA Member Support Centre ~ Your first port of call when you have an industrial or work/life issue.
PSA ~ Working harder for members
Call 1300 PSA NSW (1300 772 679)

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Australia faces a “debt crisis”

As the old saying goes: “if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth”.

Since unveiling their budget two months ago, Tony Abbott and his mate Joe Hockey, have been claiming that Australia faces a “debt crisis” in an attempt to  justify their harsh cuts to education, health and the larger social safety net that working people, through our unions, have fought so hard to secure. Here in NSW, the Liberal Government are also using similar lines to threaten our jobs, rights and services.  The problem is, their fear campaign doesn’t match the facts.

The truth is, the Liberal and National State and Federal Governments are so far off the mark, even when they cozy up to big business, leading Australian economists have recently publicly rejected the notion that Australia has a "debt crisis'', with one expert even saying it was an abuse of the language to apply the term to Australia! In other words: “Debt crisis? What debt crisis?!”¹

So while the PM and Premier Mike Baird might believe they can sell ice to an eskimo, the community isn’t buying their “budget crisis” lies. Click on the image below to share with your Facebook friends and help Bust the Budget myths!



Sadly, the Liberal lies don’t stop there. They claim our deficit is too high, when in fact our deficit is a mere 1.2% of GDP - a quarter of the advanced country average. They claim that taxes are too high and spending is “out of control,” when Australia is the 4th lowest among OECD countries on both counts.²

The truth is, the Abbott Government lied their way into office on a trail of broken promises,  and now they continue lying to mask their true intentions: using the budget as a way to promote policies that would lead to an American-style system in which average Australians are priced out of educational opportunities, families have to pay for privatised healthcare, and business interests and profits margins have priority -- rather than what’s best for our community.

Don’t let them get away with it. Expose the Liberals’ lies: help get the truth out on twitter and Bust the Budget myths by sharing with your Facebook friends.

I’ll be quite frank. As a union leader, you won’t often catch me quoting John Howard, but recently the former PM made a pretty sensible observation, noting the Australian people “will respond to an argument for change and reform [but] they want two requirements. They want to be satisfied it's in the national interest, because they have a deep sense of nationalism and patriotism. They also want to be satisfied it's fundamentally fair.”

This budget doesn’t even pass the Howard test, and the Liberal party’s lines don’t pass the truth test.

“If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth.” Abbott and Hockey keep repeating their “budget crisis” lies; it’s up to us, budget busters, to fight fear with facts and make sure their tall tales don’t become accepted as truth.

In Solidarity,

Mark Lennon
Secretary
UnionsNSW

¹"Economists reject Abbott crisis claims" Sydney Morning Herald; 12 July 2014
²“Myth busting the Commission of Audit” The Australia Institute; 2014

University of Sydney Convocation, on deregulation

As you know, this year’s federal budget included major changes to higher education that will affect how governments fund universities and how universities levy fees. In a word: deregulation.

The Government’s plans for higher education will be decided soon by parliament. If they pass, there will be less public funding available per student, and universities will be able to determine their own fees.

“Demand-driven” education is the American model – something that Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joe Stiglitz warned against. It will have serious effects, especially for students from low- and middle-income backgrounds.

Several fellows of the University of Sydney’s Senate – including Catriona Menzies-Pike, Verity Firth and Andrew West, elected by the alumni, and Patrick Massarani, elected by the undergraduates – are petitioning for a meeting of Convocation so deregulation can be debated thoroughly by the University community.

Convocation comprises all graduates and academic members. It is entirely within the by-laws and processes of the University and, as befits the seriousness of the issue and the status of the University, it is a solemn and respectful ceremony. There has not been such a meeting for 60 years. It will be a historic opportunity for staff and alumni to express their views to the Senate, the University administration and the nation’s parliament.

If the Chancellor agrees to convene Convocation, academic staff and alumni will gather on campus to debate the following motion:

That Convocation expresses its concern at the federal government’s proposed changes to higher education. We request the federal government restore the higher education funding cut in the 2014 budget. We further ask that the University of Sydney refrain from supporting fee deregulation, which will prevent or discourage potential students from seeking admission to the University because of an inability to meet or repay tuition costs.

If you are a University of Sydney graduate member or academic staff member, we invite you to print off and sign this letter to the Chancellor.

If you know of other University of Sydney graduates, please forward it on, distributing this email as widely as you can.

Please return the signatures by 25 July at the latest by mailing hard copies to GPO Box 3365, Sydney NSW 2001, or fax to 02 9262 1623 or email a scan to cpsu@psa.asn.au and we will work with the Sydney University PSA/CPSU members with organising the Convocation.

Authorised by Andrew Holland, Acting Assistant General Secretary, Public Service Association of NSW, 160 Clarence St Sydney 2000