Meet at Southern Cross at 9:30.

When you just walk into the Station, under the wavy roof (before you go thru to the ticketed
section) there are big orange buildings that really stand out. Under those buildings there's a sign that says 'Meeting Point'.

To subscribe to student unionists yahoogroup, send a blank email to:
StudentUnionists-subscribe@yahoogroups.com


National Ed Conference is fast approaching. Registration has now closed, but if your are desperate to go, I'm sure there is a way. Just contact the right people. There are will be plenty of interesting speakers from student organisations, academia, university admins, think tanks, political parties, pressure groups and the media including Liz Thomson (formerly Monash, now working @ RMIT union), Pamela Curr (Asylum Seeker Resource Center), Rose Jackson (NUS), Dick Larkins, Karla Lipsig-Mumme, John Mallarvey (Australian Vice Chancellor's Committee) and Jenny Macklin.

The cost is $60 for registration, or $30 for Monash volunteers - bargin!

Rego forms and other info can be found at www.msa.monash.edu.au/nec2006

This is a forum and database for students to share their knowledge and organise. Get involved, you won’t regret it. Your participation isn’t just helpful, it’s damn necessary! Through face-to-face involvement in your union and student collectives, you’re helping to support your communities and resisting the attacks on our ability to organise. Who knows, you might make a few friends out of it too (perhaps, even sexual friends!)

Sign up as a union solidarity contact to find out about the latest snap actions. Feel free to post information to this site that is of importance to student unionists and student workers. And of course, tell all your friends about your new, favourite webpage!


Challenges to Students in the Workplace
It is widely recognised that students are over-represented in casual and precarious employment. Young students in particular, who have less employment experience, are often forced into situations where they give up many of their rights just to support themselves through their education.

Whilst students often seek flexible work, they very rarely opt for unpredictable work. Students need to know how many hours they can expect to work in the week. They also require advance warning of when they will be required to do shift, so they can negotiate their study and other commitments (including the need for some sort of social life to reduce their stress!)

Students are often vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace. They are frequently hired in industries under ‘casual labour’ status, which lacks the same safeguards as other employment relationships. There are also many students who accept cash-in-hand jobs, which though economically tempting, actually voids many of the rights and responsibilities in the workplace relationship.

In all too frequent incidences, employers take unfair advantage of young workers naivety and inexperience. They are at risk of being placed in unsafe work environments. Their naivety about appropriate conduct between people in the workplace coupled with their desire to gain experience may result in their acceptance of harassment or unfair discrimination on the basis of cultural difference or identity stereotypes. In some unfortunate instances, the prejudice of management results in the student worker’s unfair dismissal, which can shatter their self-esteem and particularly those from already marginalised communities in our society.

What Are We Fighting For, Again? I Forgot.
Student workers may not know they are missing out on crucial workplace protections until it’s too late. It often only after horrible experiences those young workers join their union. However, there are more reasons than just individual protection, to want to get involved in unionism.

A union is a collection of people who share a similar interest ¬¬– for instance, students at a TAFE campus or people who do call-center work. These people band together, using the power of teamwork and solidarity, as a method of securing fair and equitable treatment for everyone—rather than just the few. Unions are also part of a broader project to improve the living conditions for everyone around the world.

Most young students are unable to recollect a time before the Howard government. They may not remember the widespread anger at the introduction of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs). They are likely to know nothing other than anxiety over career advancement—all for the sake of keeping one’s head above water in the increasingly competitive society we find ourselves in. Economic rationalists believe this institutionalised insecurity and anxiety is the only way that our society can function effectively.

There are increasing numbers of people who are supporting alternatives though. You can do your own research to find out about these! However, the features common to most of these alternatives are a society based on meaningful relationships, skill sharing, creativity, dynamism and real discussion and debate. Unionists support community-based approaches to organisation, where duties-of-care take precedence over the steady infiltration of the free market into every aspect of our lives. Whoah, that’s all a bit heavy!

Union organising has played a crucial role in protecting workers. Since the development of industrial capitalism in the mid-1800s and right into our increasingly post-industrial age where we find people are being hired in service industries like bar tendering and data entry, as much as the traditional view of unions as just protecting people making stuff in factories and in mines. The concept of unionism is rarely explained to young people in schools or the workplace though. Probably because it’s a bit political, encourages people to think, stand up for themselves, work together and change things. This tends to scare education administrators and CEOs, who like to keep control of things for themselves.

Unions are an important mechanism in our advanced and globalised economy. Business owners and managers naturally incline towards making profits, expanding their enterprise and accumulating as much wealth as possible—that is their rationality and how they function efficiently within the market. Unions function as the human face, which ensure that ordinary people in the workplace are not left in the dust. Unions help defend conditions in the workplace and seek to share the benefits of workers productivity with everyone involved—not just upper management and shareholders. While it is rare for businesses to equally share their profits with staff or the broader community, cuts to workplace conditions and unnecessary sackings are often the first approach of a business which wants to boost their profit margins.



How Useful Are Students, Anyway?
Student movements have been key leaders in many social movements. And not just in the hippie days! Way before then and also right now. In France, we’ve seen student groups working with unions to stage mass strikes and force their government to back down over repressive legislation that made it easier to sack young graduates. Australia is in a similar situation of radical attacks against fairness in the workplace. Though students can not immediately harm the economy through striking, direct action tactics, their ability to mobilise other groups and the symbolism of an educated youth dissenting, is very powerful.

Students have access to the cutting edge of critical thinking. Sharing this information with the rest of the community and encouraging people to organise and fight for change is crucial to the functioning of our democracy.

Too Many Unfamiliar Words, Too Hard
Getting involved in community organising can sometimes be a bit daunting with all the new words and concepts. Rest assured that everyone is learning from each other, and people are usually more than happy to share their knowledge and opinions on a variety topics. There is also a huge amount of resources available on the internet. Googling a few words can often find you a variety of articles on an issue. A really useful resource is wikipedia . Here you can type nearly any word, find a short explanation of it, and also related concepts which can be really useful in getting new information to stick together.

See how neoliberalism can get you to libertarianism can get you to digital gold bug can get you to empirically can get you to John Stuart Mill can get you to suffrage can get you to alien can get you to gaikokujin can get you to ethnocentrism can get you to…etc.


How To Get Involved
There are heaps of ways you can get involved. Sign up as a Union Solidarity contact and help build actions. Contact your student union and find out what collectives are being organised. If you’re not on an active, left-wing campus consider starting a collective of your own with the help of student activists at other campuses. Come along to Student Unionist Network (SUN) meetings to find out about broader student campaigns. Go to the Victorian Trades Hall Council webpage to find out about the Young Unionists Network and other information about unions, how to join your union, what rallies are coming up, etc.

Quick sticks, get to it!