SOUTH AFRICA: New national university union launched

South Africa has a new higher education union, following the merging of two organisations historically based in the university and polytechnic sectors. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), which represents 5,000 academic and administrative general staff, said it was a response to the need for a single voice to speak for workers in a restructured tertiary sector.

The new union was formed at a joint meeting last month of the National Tertiary Education Staff Union and National Union of Tertiary Employees.

Another reason for its creation was to combine the resources and experience of the former university and polytechnic-based unions, after restructuring of the higher education landscape cut the number of institutions from 36 to 21 through mergers and turned polytechnics into universities of technology.

NTEU said in a statement that the tertiary education sector in South Africa faced major issues and it was imperative to reduce fragmentation of worker representation and create a single unionised voice for teachers and general staff.

It identified major issues facing workers in tertiary education as: increasing attacks on academic freedom, rising managerialism, reductions in the established posts of institutions, low salary rates, rising student numbers, heavy workloads and work stresses, deteriorating conditions of service, corporatisation and casualisation.

NTEU's first National President, Norman Kemp, said the new and bigger union would try to draw in other smaller unions to grow to a more significant size. Currently it represents around a quarter of the sector's teachers and general staff. The goal is to grow to 20,000 members.

"Numbers count in unionism and a bigger union will have a far greater impact," Kemp said. "For universities it means dealing with fewer unions which makes it easier all round."

The amalgamation of the two unions mirrors an international trend in the past decade to form larger single unit representation for higher education, NTEU said. "The action also responds to common interests and synergy-seeking in the restructured higher education landscape in South Africa."

The union will also seek to represent workers in the expanding further education sector.

karen.macgregor@uw-news.com