About Rank-And-File Action

We are a group of rank-and-file unionists in the National Tertiary Education Union, at Sydney University, fighting for a fair university and education for all.

We’re ran in the August 2022 union elections behind the below principles, and are doing our best to build the union branch we need.

What RAFA stands for

  • A better and more inclusive university: We want to fight for a just university, where staff and students play a genuine democratic part in shaping education and research, where teaching and research are integrated at every level, and where the right to research is real and protected

  • Universal job security: We want an end to exploitative casualisation and insecure work – with over 74% of staff on insecure contracts – and an end to the continual threat of redundancy for continuing staff from so-called change processes

  • Fair pay for fair work: With continual cost of living pressures, we need to win a real pay rise, end the wage theft that underpins so much casual work, and stop overwork with real workload controls for continuing staff.

  • Standing for social justice: We believe in taking a stand against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, war and nuclear proliferation, and for causes like climate justice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander justice, and Palestinian liberation. These are workers’ issues, and so they must be issues the union is prepared to take action on.

We need a union committed to:

  • Striking for our rights: Industrial action is the best weapon we have to win a fair deal for University of Sydney workers. We believe that further strike action will be needed to win a real pay rise, to win sick pay, equal super, all hours paid, and job security for casuals, to win job security and redeployment clauses for continuing staff, and to defend conditions like the 40:40:20 and workload committees.

  • Union democracy now: Members must be in the driving seat of NTEU decision making. This means that the bargaining team (which sits down to negotiate with management) must be subordinate to members’ meetings, and between those meetings to the democratically elected branch committee.

  • Fight for the right to strike: We believe that limitations on our rights to strike as workers, such as our right to do marking bans, to strike for political issues such as climate, to strike outside the bargaining period, or to strike in solidarity with other campuses and industries holds us back. We need to be prepared to challenge these broken rules to win lasting change.

  • Solidarity on the streets: Workers across our industry, and across other industries, need to be prepared to stand up to the new Labor government and together demand fair funding for public services including education. This means we must be prepared to act with NTEU branches across the country, as well as stand in solidarity with unions in other sectors taking action.

Support our vision for what USYD could be, and what the NTEU needs to do to get there?

Get in touch with the campaign today!