Fleur Fitzsimons NZUSA Co-President

Vice Chancellors and Government must avert university staff strike action

Students are today calling on Vice Chancellors and the Government to act quickly to avert university staff strike action plans by meeting staff pay claims.

"The Vice Chancellors need to make a decent pay offer to staff to stop disruptive strike action," said Fleur Fitzsimons, Co-President of the New Zealand University Students' Association (NZUSA) "University managers have an obligation to students to provide the right conditions for study - including fair pay for university staff."

Staff at universities have voted to take up to five day's strike action in support of pay claims and new national collective agreements for academic and general staff.

"The government and the universities will be to blame if strike action goes ahead. They must start to value university staff in New Zealand," said Fitzsimons.

"If the Government wants universities of a world class standard, they have to start putting their money where their mouth is and fund them properly," said Fitzsimons. "Students are keenly aware of the fact that staff at New Zealand universities are overworked and underpaid and support their claims for better pay and conditions."

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>