Tag: union

Matte Rochford for VP Professional

I work in admin for the School of Languages & Cultures (FASS). I’m a current member of the Branch Committee for our union. I’m a dedicated union activist who participates in all aspects of our branch’s work including the Campaign Committee, bargaining debriefs, members’ meetings, outreach and recruitment work, rallies, and industrial action. Last bargaining round I was a picket captain, working hard to help build the best campaign possible for our wages and conditions.

Freedom of speech is under attack at the university. We need to defy the attacks on protest at this campus, reinvigorate the spirit of the Freedom Rides, and proudly defend the pro-Palestine movement. Sometimes we need to defy Management – bad policies need to be broken.

We must mount a strong campaign this year against management’s attacks on working conditions. There have been too many restructures, workloads are mounting, and academic staff’s research rights are again under attack.

I’m proud to be running with Rank and File Action (RAFA rafausyd.com). We’re a group of optimistic, strategic union activists, who know the importance of industrial militancy, and the power of non-sectarian, member-led unionism.

Tim White

I’m Tim White, a professional staff member in the Sydney Informatics Hub, providing software engineering support to researchers across the University. I’ve also been an academic, having spent nearly a decade doing postdocs in astrophysics across Europe and Australia, and becoming well-acquainted with the issues of precarity and workloads that many in our sector face. These issues drove me to become more active during the last bargaining round, leafletting to build the strikes and acting as picket captain. Since then, I’ve continued to be active, particularly as a member of the campaign committee.

I believe the best way to build the strength of our union is to prove that together we stand for what is fair and just; for a university that is a democratic community of learners, and not some corporate AI slop degree mill. We must be bold and strategic in our fight to ensure we win a fair agreement, with a real pay rise that claws back what we’ve lost to inflation.

That’s why I’m running to be a member of our branch committee and representative at national council, and why I’m proud to be running with the Rank and File Action ticket.