AUS-ASTE Amalgamation

Response from Philip Ferguson:

Isn't this a bit of a dog in a manger attitude?

We'll just be concerned about our little patch and everyone else can go hang?


The concerns expressed by David W are certainly valid ones. But I don't see why they automatically should translate into a NO vote.

It's in the best interest of all of us - university and polytech staff - to get as much public spending on the tertiary education sector as possible.

It's disappointing to read that Mary, with whom I often agree, is only interested in university staff and doesn't support any particular level of funding for polytechs.

There also seems to be the idea among some staff that the less funding polytechs get, the more universities can get. In fact, just like low pay for one group of workers depresses all pay rates, the reality is that the lower polytech funding is the lower university funding will be.

Instead of regarding polytechs as the enemy, or at best as some kind of dread rival - thereby playing into the hands of governments who function by divide and rule when it comes to funding issues - we should adopt a broader and more generous approach. And not simply because it's a 'nice' thing to do, but because it's in *our vested interest* to have as strong a possible force for lifting funding of the entire tertiary sector. Just wanting our own sandpit is a recipe for not getting what we want from government but, instead, ending up fighting with polytechs over funding.

In relation to Mary's point about AUS winning better salary movements for its members, the salary movements (certainly for general staff) have barely kept pace with inflation - in fact, given that real inflation is far higher than government figures, our real wages have probably fallen. Having a bigger and more powerful union puts us in a better position to start going for the kind of pay increases we actually need.

What we win at any time depends on the mood of the membership and members' preparedness to fight for what we need. At present we've been prepared to accept too little. That has nothing to do with ASTE.

Rather than worrying that we will be dragged down to polytech levels - in fact some of us already are at that level in terms of pay and conditions! - we should adopt the approach that helping improve pay and conditions in polytechs will help us improve pay and conditions in universities.

Also, anyone of us could be restructured out of a job and, especially in the case of general staff, find ourselves working in a polytech. Mary, if you got restructured out of a library job here and ended up in a library in a polytech, wouldn't you want to have the same conditions there as here? And isn't having a common union the best way to achieve that?

Phil