National Tertiary Education Union members at JCU will rally from 8am Tuesday morning (15 November) as industrial action continues across five Queensland universities.
Negotiations started more than a year ago, and management has still made no pay offer.
The NTEU bargaining team will join members at the rallies before going into what is the second last bargaining meeting for the year. They fear there is little prospect of an agreement before Christmas.
The protests will be held at James Cook University's Townsville and Cairns campuses after management pledged to lock out staff who implemented small bans that had little impact on students.
Quotes attributable to NTEU JCU Branch President, Jonathan Strauss:
"Show me the money, JCU management! They say they will offer a 'community standard' pay rise, but they haven't said what that standard is.
"JCU staff's last scheduled pay rise was at the end of June 2021. Since then, the cost of living, rents, and interest rates have soared.
"My members and I can't accept standing still while living gets harder. We won't bear the burden for management failures to attract students to JCU — something decent pay, improved job security, and workload controls could help."
Quote attributable to NTEU JCU Branch Academic Vice-President, Simon Foale:
"JCU management's spending on staffing is still below the industry average. There's too much secrecy about where the money not spent on salaries goes."
