Northland Polytech Staff - One day is not enough

Association of Staff in Tertiary Education
ASTE Te Hau Takitini o Aotearoa

Northland Polytechnic Staff say
“One day is not enough”

Academic staff at Northland Polytechnic have voted at the strike meeting today to continue their strike tomorrow (Thursday). “Staff are concerned that there seems to have been no productive response from their employer” Lloyd Woods the National President of ASTE (the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education) said today. “Members have been working extremely hard to successfully bring the Polytechnic back from the perilous position it was in only 12 months ago and take a zero % salary offer as a slap in the face for their efforts—who can blame them for wanting to make sure their concerns are taken seriously” he added.

ASTE believes Northland Polytechnic needs to find only around $40,000 in total to fund the claimed increase of 2% for 2003 and this can be spread out over the next 3 months. This is a lesser claim than that made for the other Institutions in the Multi –Employer bargaining that has now taken 16 days and mediation and ended up with staff feeling they had no choice but to take sustained industrial action.

“This action by our Northland members shows the strength of feeling and frustration that results from a very reasonable ASTE claim being countered by the employers ridiculous counter offer AND claims to reduce working conditions- who knows what will be decided at the strike meeting tomorrow?” Mr Woods said.

Support for the striking staff at the six institutions has been strong from amongst the community, students, other staff, and wider afield. “Staff at all of the institutions involved hope that the employers will sit up and listen and come back to us quickly with a reasonable offer so we can get back into negotiations and sort this out by Christmas” Mr Woods added.

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