Student-Stymying Scandal

Let me say up front, I’m a supporter of strike action. If you don’t think you’re being treated fairly by your employer, and discussing it with them isn’t fixing it, then what better way to get the message across that simply refusing to work on their terms. It’s an important part of a functional employment landscape.
What the Bus Drivers in Auckland did, for example, was legit. Sure, it annoyed a lot of people, but they refused to carry out their day-to-day job in a way that cut the revenue of their employer. The people of Auckland were able to figure out other ways to get around.

However, what the Tertiary Education Union are doing now is totally unacceptable. When you are an academic, you take on responsibilities that extend beyond a simple employment contract. You are literally shaping people’s lives and what they will become, and that isn’t something to be toyed with. By all means an academic should protest if they believe they are being treated unfairly. They should refuse to do any sort of administrative work. But the one thing they should never under any circumstances do, if they still hold any pride in the position they fill, is do anything that will directly damage their students.

And yet the Tertiary Education Union have voted to withhold marks at three polytechnics. Right at the end of the year. Right when many students will be seeking jobs, and when these grades matter.

They say “withholding assessment marks is a legitimate and legal industrial action, although one that we strongly regret needing to use.”

They are, of course, right. But just because something is legitimate and legal, doesn’t mean you should do it.

Let me say straight up, right now: Withholding marks is an attack on students, a ploy designed to redirect their anger at your employer rather than you. It is a cheap trick and if you do it, you belittle your profession. I expected better from you all.

The full text of the TEU statement is below, for fairness:

Tertiary Education Union members at Waikato Institute of Technology have voted today to withhold student marks as part of their ongoing industrial action.  They join their colleagues at Unitec and Whitireia Polytechnic in the withholding of all student assessment marks and will not participate in any processing of marks.  Union members at the three polytechnics and three other polytechnics, Bay of Plenty Polytechnic, NorthTec and Western Institute of Technology have been involved in a long running dispute with their employers over an attempt to protect their existing working conditions from being eroded.

Staff at the six polytechnics resumed industrial action two weeks ago and have been involved in prolonged strikes ever since. Staff are seeking to retain their existing working conditions and leave entitlements as well as an improved pay increase.  Employers are seeking to remove some of their academic staff’s working conditions and are currently offering a 2 percent pay increase over two years.

“The last thing lecturers want to do is to undermine their students’ learning,” said Tertiary Education Union national industrial officer Irena Brorens, “and they certainly don’t want to withhold assessment marks, but the employers are leaving them with no choice. They are taking this action to protect our long standing working conditions that allow them to be good teachers and to give the best education they can to students in their local communities.”

“Withholding assessment marks is a legitimate and legal industrial action, although one that we strongly regret needing to use.”