It’s time again for weekend reflections, which makes space for longer than usual comments on any topic. As always, civilised discussion and no coarse language.
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John Quiggin 
The oil spill is such a shame, such a waste of oil that could have been used productively.
At least they are working hard to return to production.
Crikey John, it seems like the Rudd government’s strategy of telling the ‘truth’ about the spaced out Coalition’s non-workable IR policies is getting up Abbott’s nose as Gillard continuously attacks Workchoices. After being evicted from the chambers yesterday, Abbott is now threatening to boycott Parliament. The truth is, the Coalition cannot come to terms that Workchoices is dead and buried. Thumbs up Labor.
@Michael of Summer Hill
Workchoices was ahead of its time. Lets just say it was a courageous policy (in the language of Yes Minister).
Rationalist, the only thing the neo-conservative illywackers did was turn the clock back. How can that be ahead of its time?
Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession
@Rationalist
Yeah Rationalist……sure….workchoices was SO FAR ahead of its time….RIGHT. Thats why they are still getting away with huge bonuses in the financial sector while the rest of the workforce gets screwed by bullies in the name of a “flexible workforce”.
Workchoices wasnt what it sounded like, was what it was – an exercise in humiliation of workers courtesy of JH which is exactly why the bastard got thrown out.
@Rationalist
Rationalist – my case in point. Darryl Lea dragging workers into its city stores for one hour “shifts”.
Ive never bought their rocky road since and I never willl.. and thats a huge contribution fom me to their pathetic treatment of staff…
@Alice
@Alice
Fair enough. Long term policy trends will reflect the direction towards freedom of choice and flexibility in all aspects of life.
Once again, in the story “Mafia ‘sank nuclear waste ship'”, we learn how well humankind has been served by the private profit motive.
I heard just now, on ABC’s AM program that there are 40 I think sunken waste ships in one small area of the Meidterranean sea. Who can possibly guess how many there are world-wide?
I wonder if it is time to comment on the Dennis Ferguson case. It is particularly pertinent for me, since he is staying five-seven minutes by car from where I grew up and I still have primary-school-aged family members in the area.
Now DF is not one of nature’s gentleman, and I can’t say that I’d befriend him or even giver him the time of day if the occasion arose, but I do accept that he has a right to live, which clearly implies a right to live somewhere, and provided he is getting an appropriate level of ‘support’ it might as well be in Ryde as anywhere. It’s hard to imagine that he could in practice be a threat to anyone, and the protests are, it seems to me, an exercise in pure animus, which reflects poorly on those involved.
I heard one of the protesters complaining that he keeps moving from place to place, which probably qualifies as one of the more ironic claims in the public discourse I have heard. I’d have loved to ask the woman why she thought that was and what could be done about it.
@Fran Barlow
Fran – Ferguson is an argument for a place of residence in a mental asylum. He has been caught selling “toys” for a charity recently…now why would that be..?? I doubt he is cured. There is no cure sometimes and children should be protected firstly. If I had children I wouldnt want this repeat offender living in my street either.
@Alice
I also doubt he is cured but that’s not the same as claiming that he is an ongoing threat.
Here’s the salient portion of ‘toy story’.
At the risk of going out on a limb here I’d say that anyone who lets his or her pre-pubescents wander unattended through Kings Cross has far worse than Ferguson to worry about.
In any event, the crime for which Ferguson was convicted involved systematic grooming. He didn’t snatch a child at random from the streets but befriended a woman whose husband Ferguson knew to be serving time for sexually abusing the very children in question. Then, in concert with another man, persuaded the mother to allow him to take these vulnerable and very young children on holidays. That’s his MO.
He’s one of Australia’s best known hate figures, so how likely is that in the current context? Zero. One may assume that all the people with children in the area have cautioned their children, so really, I don’t see the problem.
@Alice
I heard the owner of Darryl Lea once talk, on TV, about his attitude to his employees and unions and haven’t brought any of their products since.
Crikey John, now Coalition frontbencher George Brandis is accusing the House of Representatives Speaker Harry Jenkins of being biased. How the ‘truth’ is starting to bite the Coalition in the rump.
Struth John, whilst the NTEU strike at 16 universities for a measly 20% wage increase spread over four years, BHP Billiton’s chief executive has picked up a 51 per cent pay rise taking his salary to $12 million. Time to stop the rot.
And while we are doing controversial stuff … isn’t it time the ISAF forces left Afghanistan?
It appears that opposition in the US is now over 50% and it seems unlikely, with Mike Mullen describing the situation as serious and deteriorating, that it will become more popular any time soon. The recent elections underscored the difficulties involved. The exchange with Lindsay Graham “how many tanks have the Taliban got?” was devastating.
Obama would lose face leaving, as he (unwisely in my opinion) pledged support but in the longer run, as they say, all politics is local. He only needs to find a face saving way to leave — perhaps retreating to a watching brief in neighbouring states and he can say they are ready to send in troops if anything of national security concern develops. That would radically cut the cost of the intervention in money and bodies and many of the people the West doesn’t like could shoulder the business of killing each other.
The project was always unworkable. There is no significant group of persons upon which one could found a viable inclusive state, even with armed support from the outside. Accordingly, Afghanistan has never been a nation in any meaningful sense. What we have there is a largely 8th century patriarchal tribal culture equipped with the rudiments of late 20th century technology — an ugly mix.
Admit you got it wrong, and get the hell out of there I say.
@Michael of Summer Hill
Heh, I never noticed any disruptions.
Rationalist, really?
@Michael of Summer Hill
Yeah, today lectures, tutorials, labs all went ahead as normal
I don’t know where Rationalist studies, but probably the majority of classes in UQ went ahead as normal today.
That might not have been the case for people studying arts or education, where the faculty are more politically engaged, but for science and engineering I don’t think there would have been that many cancellations. Although I did cancel my own statistics tutorial and sent an email to all the students explaining the reasons.
The NTEU membership is a small minority of university staff, especially now that full-time academics are themselves a minority. There are thousands more casuals taking over, and there has been a big increase in short-term contracts for overseas academics etc. Academic workloads are a lot more burdensome than they used to be in the 70s as well. Who has the time to attend boring union meetings?
The fact that for most casual tutors they are making $32.50 an hour when the only other job they could likely get would be half that much, flipping burgers or doing something equally unpleasant. This means that most see no reason to agitate over conditions when conditions are so much better than anything else available. Of course, they are probably unaware of the role of organized labor in achieving their currently good conditions in the first place. And in many faculties a lot of the casual staff are from places where democratic unions don’t even exist. The NTEU has not done a good job of even making faculty staff aware of its existence.
There is also the obvious free rider problem. Whatever gains are achieved by industrial action will be extended to all staff whether they are union members or not. So for many, they are perfectly content to reap the benefits of the union’s efforts without contributing to the costs, so why rock the boat? Let someone else do it. It’s the “rational” thing to do after all, if not the right thing.
Rationalist, excluding those smart unis which have struck a deal with the NTEU, all the rest would have been affected by the thousands of unionists striking.
Years ago at Adelaide University there was an organised strike over pay and conditions. On the day, from my faculty as far as striking went, I was “it” – and I was on a contract, not permanent – and the local union head (Rod Crewther from Physics), and a handful of others scattered throughout the rest of the university. It was embarrassing: however, the reason for the poor turnout among permanent staff was mainly one of not wanting to disrupt students, and among the casual staff it was that and the loss of a day’s much needed cash. It wouldn’t surprise me if lecturers this time round also were a bit torn between striking and not disrupting students. Even in the pay as you go modern university lecturing staff generally want to do the right thing by students, even if it works against them.
Of course, the percentage of permanent staff who are in the union is unlikely to be as high as it was 12–13 years ago – no doubt that would blunt the strike action somewhat. We’ll see.
Rationalist, Gerard & Donald Oats, the IR landscape has changed and the NTEU is out there doing its best to better members pay and conditions, not to mention other outstanding issues such as improving employment opportunities for members of the Indigenous community and restoration of union rights. Thumbs up NTEU.
I’m a member and I’m not arguing about that Michael. Uq’s management has been one of the worst in the country but this effort has already made their tone more conciliatory
Gerard, good to hear. Thumbs up NTEU
the NTEU has delvered worse pay and conditions for its members for decades. Look at the relativities. Woeful.
For legal reasons (ie ongoing fear of litigation) I can’t go into my experience.
litigation? crikey Nanks, I would like to hear your experience.
I think that what Donald Oats was saying about disruption is an important point. Being a university lecturer is a very individual job, and most courses are planned around a fixed number of lectures. To miss one of them is major inconvenience (particularly for science/engineering type courses). I can see why some lecturers would be reluctant to do so, knowing that they’d have to make up the material or disadvantage their students. Tonight I had a macroeconomics lecture and the lecturer apologized for not being on strike – but because of the ekka holidays we had already lost one lecture and he thought we couldn’t miss another one.
Fair enough but I think he could have just rescheduled it. It’s not like the students wouldn’t understand. For my wednesday tute it was simple, I just told them to come to one of my other tutes during that week. Last week when I told them about the possibility of a strike they thought it was cool, I explained what was going on with management. Well they’re mostly teenagers and a lot of them (I am assuming unlike the pro-Workchoices “Rationalist”) have experience working in shitty jobs and being screwed over by management – why wouldn’t they understand? Sure you might piss off the odd Randroid twerp but that’s a good thing.
The fact about casualization is obvious: if you have lots of hours on one day, then going on strike that day means you dont pay the rent that week. Actually the union says they can compensate people in that situation although I very much doubt they could afford to, and I don’t know the details. At any rate it’s an obvious reason why management loves casualization. and it’s not as if we’re all honours and masters students. I know a couple of casuals in their forties and fifties working more hours than any full timer and who know more about their subjects than the lecturers do. But the uni won’t consider them for any sort of permanent position even though they’ve been working there for many years
Nanks, you really need to explain yourself but ie an examination of QUT Salary Scales for Academic Staff shows they vary from approx Level A $50,000 to Level E $134,000. I wonder why academic salaries are so low?
@nanks
Nanks I CAN go into my experience and I will.
I walked straight past the NTEU today and said after working for 15 years as a casual academic EVERY semester at a given Sydney uni (I had a fractional position but couldnt keep it up because my son was too small) Ive seen nothing but deteriorating conditions in unis. Ive seen lecturers get no help, Ive seen classes expand to where teaching is just crowd control, Ive seen casuals increasingly used, abused and churned whilst OWMs come bacK after retirement on fractional high level pays for doing ALMOST nothing but turning up to lectures.
Ive seen the environment become more discriminatory against women, not less with requirements for publishing, running mass enrolment student numbers with no permanently employed tutors to assist lecturers with research, admin, volume of emails etc whilst still the Lecturers must publish and do the jobs of three.
Ive seen casuals get paid out research monies to do admin work or research work or course development work and get no recognition whatsoever, and no thanks and I have been the recipient of back to back contracts forn years…just a series of rotating short gap contracts that amounts to a desperate need for another permanent staff member.
Ive seen it all…and the uni environment disgusts me. Heads of school are remunerated with bonus payments for saving costs and shoving more students in casual tutors classes, or scrimping on telephones, desks, software packages.
The “help and support casuals” campaigns in most unis is utter BS. If you ask for a copyu of a statistical package like Stata theyw ont give you one because “itn costs” and some bastard is getting a cost cutting bonus. They barely even keep you connected to email if you want to take a semester off for your own research.
As for the NTEU, they support the status quo…if you ask them what they do for casuals they make stupid inane comments like “we fought for a desk or telephone for you guys” or “we have a casuals club”.
Whoopee.
All the while the performance rewarded head of school finds ways to cut casuals income or increase their students, or cut marking payment time…in fact 3rd students are the best to exploit because they dont know the rates and dont stay long.
Then unis offer “professional development” where they expect casuals to drive across town, pay tolls, pat parking for a one hour (mandatory session) at a pathetic rate and well as pay petrol to collect and deliver marking back to them, provide your own computer for correspondence and students emails, pay your own electricity for work etc
Australian universities are sexist, discriminatory, exploit casuals, and the situation will not change until they make the old boys club retire… a lot of them do bugger all anyway but they are happy to keep putting their hand out for the high post retirement fractional jobs at their old salary rate, money for travel and every perk they can get…and keep the monopoly going…
Its a revolting self perpetuating disgrace and the NTEU helps these bastards. The NTEU picketer asked me where I was going to work on Macquarie Campus today. I said to the private college. He asked and I told him, what did I think of unis? I said I prefer working for the private college…they dont shove 40 in my classes and bury me in marking and keep continually shaving the marking time like unis do…
Down with the bloody performance bonuses and to hell with the union and as far as Im concerned most uni managements can go there as well..and rot.
MoSH – check out the decline in relative wages over the last 30 years – its about 25%
When my job conditions were not met – I was allocated over twice the agreed workload and given none of the research finding and time promised – the union rep who was on the appointment panel said – So what, we lied, we do that all the time to get people. You are working with the big boys now”
I’ll never work for an Australian Uni again, they disgust me.
Alice, the NTEU can only operate within the given IR environment. But since you are in the mood why not tell everyone who at Sydney university helped themselves to a fist full of dollars whilst student accommodations were sacrificed.
@Michael of Summer Hill
50 K for a level A lecturer…its a joke. You can get that as an untrained clerk in the private sector….and unis now demand a phd for this lousy salary…????
Meanwhile tell me exactly who is hiring?…and who is just using casuals to plug gaps (most of them) ..only they arent gaps…casuals are being exploited aall across town in Sydeny for what is really and should be permanent or part time jobs and the damn unis and the heads of schools know it.
Nanks, I don’t blame you for seeing red but a lot of what has happened is due to ongoing reforms which in my opinion was a waste of time and unnecessary. Hopefully all this will be reversed.
30 years of being hopeless MoSH, this is not some recent aberration
Well here is one uni medallist who ain’t going to be waiting for change. 16 months and it is back to Europe.
@Michael of Summer Hill
because I dont know who Moshie but nothing would surprise me. I do know a lecturer who was given secondment ten years ago plus a couple at UTS to take a high level job in the public sector where his income is in the hundreds of thousands and he isnt coming back to a Lecturer’s role anytime soon…but his secondment just keeps ro;lling over earning him a nice little super contribution every year. Its not what you know, its who you have buddied up to (and it helps if your are old and have grey hair).
@nanks
Nanks – they disgust me too…I said to the NTEU …who are you lot fighting for? The Eloi or the Morlocks??
The reality is in Australian unis now, the students are Morlocks, the tutors and lecturers are morlocks and above thatb the Eloi rule with tighfisted budgets and generous self remunerations and most of their faces in the trough for all they are worth (and discriminatory??? Sexist??? IN THE EXTREME. Im just waiting for the case where I can go and cheer..)
thats the reality.
Nanks & Alice, you speak on behalf of all those who see a system failing but you mustn’t blame the NTEU for they were not in government.
And here is one distinction average undergrad and dedicated teacher / researcher/ course materials writer/ internet online manager / you name it Ill do it in uni/ now doing my masters thesis with no help whatsoever and having to argue for pathetic library email access from my 15 year Sydney uni employer every damn semester
Oh and I presented a paper a couple of semesters ago (couldnt afford a measly 300 bucks for the rego, and I got a grant for teaching and learning in a team of three and worked for free for year (more fool me) with not even a letter saying thanks..
(thank Christ I can shut the classroom door on this complete crap and have fun)
Its the pits actually in unis. Im turning private until the bastards on performance bonuses and their mates all retire.
@Alice
The “uni employer” couldnt afford the measly $300 registration fee (let alone the conference dinner cost…oh no..casuals get helped?? From their nice little “support casuals initiatives and websites??”..its BS).
The NTEU is ineffective and does jack Moshie because theyb are supportung the same bastards who inflict so much damage (Financial, emotional and just utterly humiliating degradation in the treatement of casuals when they know DAMN WELL they are usuing them as permanents…PLUS they ARE actually also, in the same process, screwing Lecturers and people on staff..
But Moshie..Im a morlock…I can walk away and negotiate better hours and days elsewhere and tell them to get stuffed if I dont like them and there is one uni I dont like right now…
I just feel even more sorry for people I worked with (on staff) and how they dont get helped either..
Clean out management. Period.
Nanks, if you need someone to carry your bags and polish your shoes let us know in sixteen months time.
They aso have these lovely departments in unis called “teachingn and learning”…and then they shove 40 in a classroom and give a student as the tutor…
Yes…as if. Teaching and learning…its all very ethereal and intellectual and attracts grant money… and meanwhile down at the coalface…it doesnt trickle down there..
Its like allocating money to the aboriginals but it gets wasted by bureacrats and no bew houses or schools actually get built.
Thanks for the support over at ozrisk. You “get it”. I’m so thankful. I’m sure you’re a fantastic teacher.
@Michael of Summer Hill
lol Michael – I am so used to people like you. Keep on serving.
@ABOM
Have I told you lately I love you ABOM (apart from Ozrisk)? I do.
Imagine that…Keynesian, loves students – yes and teaching (the door is slammed shut on the mad uni so we can all relax!), but disillusioned with stupid greedy old mostly male management, falls in love with Rothbardian, disillusioned with academia also (non thinking variety) and gambling banks in cahoots with tax misappropriating central banks.
We have lots in common ABOM. Stupid (very stupid) management everywhere…
It is an interesting argument, which I have heard on many occasions, where people who don’t belong to the union get angry because the union is not representing their interests and isn’t as powerful as they would like.
Unions will try and represent their membership but can only work within the framework of funding for universities and the legal framework set up by governments. Whilst being angry that unions can’t be more effective those who want to be represented at no cost, ensure that the power imbalance stays. It is not that the unions choose not to use power that they have, but that they need to work within severe constraints not of their making. Anyone who has ever worked on an industrial campaign knows any gains that are won are hard fought. If there aren’t funds available to support the campaign there will be few gains made.
The thread has many reasons why people do not support the most significant weapon that a worker has, which is the withdrawal of labour. This thread also shows that this is happening on an ad hoc basis with workers moving to better paid positions in other industries. Market forces ensure that replacements are found and students are still entering university and gaining qualifications. Arguments about quality and fairness will mean little to those in charge of the budgets of universities, except when these arguments are taken to the broader community and impact on the lives of the employers. High levels of union membership shows that those who are complaining are not only serious but that they are organised. Railing against the union undermines this strategy and weakens the arguments for change.
I would suggest Alice that your strategy is unlikely to work as there will be young people working within the system, looking out for number #1 and not making waves through the union, who will step up to the mark and take over from those who are nearing retirement. If you don’t like the way that the system works there are usually three options. Acceptance, resistance or resignation.
I was in the union for several years until the rule changes which made it even harder for casuals and contract staff to stay employed. Now I can’t speak for the current set up as I haven’t been anywhere near the uni jobwise for ten years or so. Back then though, I stupidly thought that some representation of contract and casual staff’s interests might occur if said staff were members. Apparently that was not the case. I can only guess as to why: having senior permanent staff, who manage hiring and firing decisions for their faculties, as union representatives was a laugh. Nowhere else could one staff member be your colleague and your employer and your union representative. It was a shambles as far as temporary staff went. My interest in unions was lukewarm before and ice cold afterwards.