Dear comrades, my name is Luke Alexander, and I work as a full-time continuing teacher and teacher trainer at the Centre for English Teaching. I’ve been working in higher education since 2013, and in that time I’ve seen our sector from many different perspectives. I’ve worked as a casual academic, enduring wage theft. I’ve been a PhD candidate for a few years now, and I’ve seen the insecure academic job market impact the lives of those around me. Finally, I’ve worked as a full-time continuing teacher to international students, with ever increasing workloads, trying to help my international students as they navigate a system that sees them as cash cows as much as anything else.
I’ve been a member of the NTEU since 2015, but it’s really been the past 2 years that I have been an active member, although I did join the picket in 2018. It was the change management process that led the elimination of the Learning Hub and the loss of jobs of fellow workers that saw me become active in the union, as I helped organise the campaign to save those jobs. Since that time I have worked to organise in the Centre for English Teaching against growing workloads and cutbacks to casual workers pay and conditions. I was also at one point police liaison at the Barff Rd pickets in the last industrial action, and will be part of the bargaining team negotiating Schedule 5 of the Enterprise Agreement.
If elected to the National Council, I would first and foremost endeavour to institute real democracy in our union. The Jobs Protection framework fiasco pointed out that the union needs to be led by rank and file members and their decisions. I am also dedicated to working to end the scourge of casualisation and precarious work in our sector, along with transphobia, racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism. As a teacher of international students I also seek to raise concerns about the university sector’s complicity in border control regimes that restrict access and representation in higher education. I also believe that to further the cause of all NTEU members we need to fight for the right to take industrial action, and that we as a union need to take on anti-strike legislation in this country.
I’m proud to say I’m running as a member of Rank And File Action. We want to see our national leadership reflect the kind of organising and activity we’ve seen at USYD. This means supporting a real pay rise, deepened industrial democracy, and support for social issues.
Vote [1] Dylan Griffiths for National Councillor (General Staff)
Vote [1] to [5] for National Council:
[1] Riki Scanlan,
[2] Dylan Griffiths,
[3] Wanyi (Wendy) Xin,
[4] Matte Rochford, and
[5] Luke Alexander
But don’t just vote RAFA. Check out our how-to-vote, and help us flyer, leaflet, and recruit as we dive into semester two. To find out more, go to https://rafausyd.wordpress.com
For a full how-to-vote and to find out how you can get more involved, go to https://rafausyd.wordpress.com
Rank-And-File Action USYD 