University strike to cause huge disruption

Tens of thousands of university students will find their lectures and tutorials cancelled today as staff at six of the country's universities go on strike in support of their pay claim.

Pickets and rallies will start this morning with rolling stoppages, including "lightning strikes" over the next two weeks. A second nationwide strike is planned for August 4.

The Association of University Staff (AUS) expects the action - the first of its kind nationally - to cause significant disruption at Auckland, Massey, Waikato, Victoria, Canterbury and Lincoln universities.

At Otago University, industrial action is on hold while staff attend a stop-work meeting this afternoon to discuss a potential pay offer.

Universities are advising students to turn up for class but do not know how many classes will be cancelled.

The AUS wants a national settlement to cover staff at all universities. It is seeking a 30 per cent pay rise over three years for academic staff and 16 per cent for general staff - increases it says are necessary to compete internationally and domestically for staff.

Association of University Staff national president Professor Nigel Haworth said individual universities had offered pay increases ranging from 2 to 4 per cent. Many offers were below the level of inflation.

Staff were feeling frustrated and angry and most of the 7000 academic and general staff covered by collective agreements were expected to take part in the strike.

Students had been notified of the strike and Professor Haworth said it would cause significant disruption to classes as about 50 per cent of those employed full-time at the country's universities were unionised.

Professor Haworth believed most students understood the strike was about the future of the sector.

"If we can't get quality staff and pay the salaries we need to, we have a problem."

NZ University Students Association co-president Camilla Belich said the association supported the striking staff and members of the association would be joining the picket line.

Ms Belich said it was important for students and the country as a whole that staff were fairly paid. Students were not worried their education would be affected but that attitude would change if the industrial action dragged on. She urged university management and the Government to sort out the issue quickly.

But Auckland University vice-chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon said the strike was disappointing and penalised students unnecessarily. From May 1 the university had increased wages and salaries for all staff by 4.5 per cent.

Professor McCutcheon said Government figures showed staff costs and salaries in the university sector had gone up at twice the rate of inflation since 1998.

It was frustrating the strike was going ahead when last week the universities joined with the unions and Government for tripartite talks to address funding issues.

Auckland University arts and law student Alex Church, 16, expected to miss three lectures. He thought more arts students were likely to be affected because arts lecturers were more likely to be union members.

Greg Langton, president of the Auckland University Students Association, said an email had been sent to more than 20,000 members last week to inform them of the strike but the effect on classes was a "bit of a lottery".

Mr Langton said students wanted improvements in class sizes and education quality - "if that comes from increasing wages, great" - but students also worried they could end up "the meat in the sandwich". There had been no talk of "refunds" among students yet.

What it's about

* University unions want a 30 per cent pay rise over three years for academic staff and 16 per cent for general staff in order to compete internationally and domestically.

* A university lecturer with a PhD has an average starting salary of $52,238 increasing to $63,559 after seven years of satisfactory service.

- additional reporting: Nicholas Moody