The current bargaining round is shaping up to be a key contest over the shape of our workforce, with management’s proposed introduction of teaching associates to cover up to twenty hours face-to-face per week. For the last six years I have been a casual academic, in FASS / SSPS, and I am greatly fortunate to now have a postdoc in Geosciences. Like many of you, I worry these jobs will undermine my future, and the future of our university as we know it.

Our union presents an alternative vision of secure, quality jobs. How we get it is through a strong industrial campaign, which must be founded on effective strike action. In turn, making that so depends on a democratic, open union structure built from local area organising.

Genuine relationships and mutual aid are at the heart of a union branch that can win change – and change not just in our workplace, but in society, as with our union’s commitment to the campaign for a free Palestine.

That’s why I’m a member of Rank And File Action (RAFA rafausyd.com). We’re an open coalition of activists across the university who cohere around strategic militancy within a democratic, inclusive union.

I’m Finola, a casual academic in Gender and Cultural Studies. I’m running for Casuals’ Rep because casuals deserve more from a university which simply could not function without us. Casuals deserve better pay, more time, and improved conversion rights. I’ve been Casuals’ Rep before, and have extensive experience campaigning against wage theft, organising forums, rallies and events to raise the profile of the crisis of casualisation, and participating in meetings with management.

I am committed to rank and file union activism: recruiting conversations; supporting peers through case work, and organising local area meetings. I also believe unions have an essential role to play in social justice campaigns, including the struggle for a free Palestine. Being picket captain and striking for nine days last bargaining round brought home to me the fact that it is we staff – academic, professional; permanent and precarious – who have the power to make the university the educational institution for public good it should be.

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

I’m a professional staff member at the Centre for English Teaching, and I’ve been an active member of the University of Sydney NTEU since 2021. I was closely involved in the 2022-2023 industrial campaign, and have been a member of the branch committee since 2024.

I served as a proxy National Council representative in 2025, and since then I believe that is where I can make the best contribution to our branch, with your support. I think our union has a key role to play in combatting the crisis in higher education in Australia, and I hope as National Councillor to play some part in that. I believe in a fighting union that pursues an ambitious bargaining strategy, including pay rises for university staff that combat the cost-of-living crisis.

I am passionate about university governance reform, and will fight for a university system where staff have a say in how it is run. I will also use my position on National Council to continue to advocate for the support of Palestine and the boycott of Israeli higher education institutions.

I’m proud to be running with the Rank-and-File Action ticket for inclusive, non-sectarian, member-led unionism.

I have been active in the union for quite a few years now, as case handler, branch committee member, enterprise bargaining representative and delegate. I’ve been especially involved in organising around academic workloads, both in our FASS campaign and as an NTEU rep on the university’s academic workloads committee.

I’m running for National Council to help our union make progress at a sectoral level on three priorities: 1. realistic workloads; 2. fair, effective and democratic university governance; and 3. academic freedom and freedom of expression on campus more broadly. It is also vitally important to defend and expand secure, balanced teaching/research careers. These jobs are being rapidly eroded, leaving a generation of academics in insecure work with burnout-inducing teaching loads, or as assistants in research programs driven by others.

I am a member of RAFA and an academic in Political Economy. My research and teaching focuses on the history of macroeconomic policy and the labour movement, and on egalitarian economic democracy.

I’m Ben, a senior lecturer in English and Writing in FASS. I’m running for Branch Secretary and Ordinary Committee Member – you can vote for me twice! I joined the NTEU as a casual in 2007 and have been on every Sydney EBA picket line since, often as picket coordinator and sometimes as police liaison.

I’ve served on Branch Committee twice and I’ve chaired the Cases Committee from 2024-2026. Chairing Cases has put me face-to-face with managers who weaponise the EA to bully and micromanage staff. I have supported academic and professional case handlers in enforcing industrial rights and responsibilities.

Whether I’m Secretary or a BC member, I’ll build collective power, making use of industrial action to win and enforce the EA members deserve. I’ll fight for fairer conditions for education-focused academics and professional staff, real pathways to conversion and secure employment for casuals, and the defence of academic freedom on campus. The branch has the right and responsibility to take a stand on social justice: decolonisation, Indigenous rights, and solidarity with Palestine.

I’m running with the Rank-and-File Action ticket (rafausyd.com) for transparent, democratic, and member-led unionism.

I’m Jean and I’m currently a professional staff member working in the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

As a proud trans woman and a staunch unionist, I recognise the important role that the union movement plays in our fight for equality. Womens rights and trans rights are major industrial issues that have been fought and won on the picket line.

The campaign for the boycott, divestment, and sanction of Israel is of great importance to many members of staff including myself. It is crucial that these we push for these demands through Branch Comittee and National Council.

I am running with Rank and File Action in support of the ticket’s vision of a member-led union.

I’m academic in History and have been involved in all dimensions of the union’s work for more than a decade: strike campaigns, enterprise bargaining meetings, supporting individual members, and recruiting new colleagues. I first joined the Branch Committee in 2014.

In 2022-24 I was Vice-President for Academic Staff, and I’m currently on the EA negotiating team. I’m asking for your vote to continue to build our branch and strengthen the collective energy and initiative of its members—the only thing standing between us and a ruthless corporate vision of higher education.

I want to see us make full and effective use of industrial action as we prosecute our EA claims. I want us to cultivate workplace organizing and build up our new delegate structure. I want the union to play a political role too. I’ve been a vocal defender of democratic rights at the University and will continue to oppose restrictions on our ability to debate and dissent. Strong unions fight all forms of injustice, and I’ll uphold and defend our branch’s support for Palestine and the boycott of Israeli institutions.

I’m proud to be running with an excellent group of activists on the Rank and File Action ticket.

I’m an academic in FASS and currently the branch’s academic Vice-President. USyd staff suffer from heavy workloads and a hostile, often irrational management. The branch needs experienced, hard-working leaders who put union work first. In my previous terms on Branch Committee, I’ve contributed to every aspect of NTEU activities. I’ve played a central role in campaigns, including planning strikes.

Together with dedicated union colleagues, I’ve successfully fought job-cuts throughout the institution. We’ve strongly contested restrictions on political expression and academic freedom, including over Palestine. We’ve vocally opposed the AEF, and fought to preserve the teaching-research nexus, essential to the university’s purpose. I’ve participated in numerous meetings with upper management and defended many ordinary members from victimisation. I’ve been on the bargaining team. I devote considerable energy to fostering a culture of democratic debate on campus. I don’t shy away from difficult questions, or hesitate to make frank public criticism of senior university managers.

I’m running as a member of Rank and File Action (rafausyd.com), which stands for inclusive, non-sectarian and progressive unionism, grassroots organising, effective industrial militancy, and creative workplace solidarity. If elected, it will be a privilege to continue using my experience and skills to advance our collective interests.

I’m a clinical trial coordinator in the Faculty of Medicine and Health, with a background in laboratory academia, where the effects of chronic lack of unionism are painfully felt. I was a picket captain during the strikes, and am currently on the Branch Committee. I’m a firm believer in unionism from below, and have been active in building local and university-wide professional staff campaigns, organising and unionising staff to resist harmful change plans and fight off management attacks on work-from-home rights.

The wins we achieved this bargaining round came from ordinary members of this branch flexing our collective muscle over nine days of strikes. But union business doesn’t stop between bargaining rounds, and our job ahead is building similar union strength from the grassroots up amongst our colleagues in our local work areas, empowering more staff to fight for rights won on the pickets, and reinforcing them with the support of a mobilised branch. 

Meaningful union solidarity does not stop at the campus gates, and I am immensely proud of our branch’s strength and unity in support of the people of Palestine. It’s not just morally necessary, it makes us stronger too.

I’m running with Rank-And-File Action. http://rafausyd.com

I am a Projects Officer and NTEU delegate at the University Library, where I’ve been involved in grassroots organising for over three years. I’ve worked with my colleagues and fellow unionists to advocate for staff working conditions and respond collectively to the Library’s most recent organisational change process, obtaining key wins for job security including no forced redundancies. I’m an active member of the Campaign Committee, working to build successful branch meetings and actions.

I’m running for Branch Committee because I want to foster a culture of participatory, democratic, and non-sectarian trade unionism with a social conscience. Our branch and its members are facing mounting challenges from the cost-of-living crisis, the neoliberalisation of the tertiary education sector, and the University’s attacks on working conditions and political freedoms. Meeting this moment requires an active and engaged membership, a strategic and militant campaign of industrial action, and a branch leadership that is not afraid to defend our democratic rights and fight for intersectional social justice, including for decolonisation and solidarity with Palestine.

I’m proud to be running as a member of Rank And File Action (rafausyd.com), which stands for progressive unionism grounded in grassroots activism and workplace organising.