Association of Staff in Tertiary Education
ASTE Te Hau Takitini o Aotearoa
Academics at Six Polytechnics Take Action
Close to eight hundred members of the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) will walk off the job this
Wednesday with the promise of more to come if polytechnic employers don’t improve their pay offer currently sitting at
zero% for one of the institutions involved and moderate their workload claim clawbacks. National President Lloyd Woods
said today “Members have had enough. Not only is the pay offer ranging from zero to 2.5% across the six institutions
involved insulting, but these employers are also trying to significantly reduce members’ conditions of employment”. He
added that the ASTE claim reflects the salary offers agreed elsewhere in the country and involves no claims of any great
effect on the institutions' costs. “We have been perfectly reasonable in our claims and our approach to these
negotiations. “The employers have not!”
“Sixteen days of negotiations and two days of mediation have failed to resolve the differences between the two parties.”
he said. “Members are left with no other option but to take strike action”. Frustrated academics at UNITEC, Waikato
Institute of Technology, Western Institute of Technology at Taranaki, Northland Polytechnic, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic
and the Whitireia Community Polytechnic will begin the strike this Wednesday.
“We will be doing our best not to adversely affect students, but at the end of the day, our working conditions are our
students’ learning conditions,” Lloyd Woods said. “Our ability to deliver the best quality education to students is
dependent on our working environment. We would prefer not to be taking this step and invite the employers to reconsider
their position. However we are not going to accept a situation where some of our members would receive a nil pay rise
and all would see an erosion of their conditions. This is why we are taking this serious step,” he said.
Lloyd Woods also said, “Strike action is not the only action available to union members. At strike meetings on
Wednesday, members will be considering further action including working within the terms of their existing collective
agreements. Our institutions currently benefit enormously from the work members do that is in excess of what their
collectives require. Members will be reflecting on this.”
END