University staff plan strike

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Universities may face a national strike, followed by rolling stoppages, early next year unless the Government loosens its purse strings.

Unions representing more than 6000 academic and general staff are planning stopwork meetings next month to float a plan for a national one-day strike on March 4.

If approved, this would be followed by rolling strikes on different days, such as all arts subjects on Mondays and sciences on Tuesdays.

Details of the plan have emerged after several hundred Auckland University staff held a two-hour stopwork meeting this week to consider interim tactics and a new pay offer.

Association of University Staff northern industrial officer Gabriel Brettkelly says the tertiary unions have borrowed the idea from secondary school teachers, who have staged rolling strikes for the past month.

Staff at Massey, Victoria, Lincoln and Otago are withholding exam marks and their Auckland colleagues are refusing to work unpaid overtime.

Massey student president Huia Welton says the industrial action is regrettable but necessary. The university's administration is concerned that a delay in posting exam results could hamper graduates' job-hunting plans.

An improved offer from Auckland University of a 3 per cent salary rise and a lump-sum payment equivalent to 0.5 per cent was not put to a vote yesterday, as negotiations and mediation will continue next week.

The offer is the highest yet made by any of the seven universities facing industrial action, but well short of claims for 8 per cent for each of three years for academic staff, who say their salaries have lagged up to 15 per cent behind inflation since 1990.

General staff are seeking 8 per cent now and cost-of-living rises over the following two years.

Universities are pleading poverty, after a 2.8 per cent rise in Government grants this year was given on condition that student fees were not raised.

But Ms Brettkelly says the Auckland University administration has offered to include unions in a joint approach to the Government next year for more money.

Auckland staff are bound by collective contracts until December 15, and cannot lawfully strike before then.

Auckland academics are understood never to have taken industrial action before, but say salaries below those of any country in the developed world are making it next to impossible for New Zealand universities to attract and retain high-quality staff.