Arguments for Amalgamation

• Overlapping membership in the university sector
  • This is also an increasing trend
  • Do we want more divisions/unions in the universities or is it better to unite?
• Improving funding of tertiary education overall versus competition
  • We both surely want a well-funded public tertiary education sector?
  • Why compete for funding – universities versus Polytechs – when a single union can advocate for maximising overall tertiary education sector funding?
• Maximising pressure and resources
  • At present AUS and ASTE duplicate a lot of resources (two sets of staff, offices, equipment, structures, submissions
  • Better to combine and create more resources for pressure on government and university managements
  • Better able to concentrate on recruitment
  • Move beyond ‘sectoralism’ to a tertiary education-wide union
• Similar positions on a range of issues – and similar challenges
  • Employment law, academic freedom, education law and policy, student access, quality provision, PTEs, working to grow union membership . .
  • Similar employment issues – promotion, salaries, commodification of education, workload, position of Maori and women staff

Philip Ferguson