National Tertiary Education Union

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**NTEU**

National Tertiary Education Industry Union
Founded	1993
Members	26,000
Country	Australia
Affiliation	ACTU, EI
Key people	Carolyn Allport (president), Grahame McCulloch (secretary)
Office location	Melbourne, Victoria
Website	www.nteu.org.au

The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU - formally called the National Tertiary Education Industry Union) is an Australian trade union for University academic and general (non-academic) staff. General staff can also be members of the Community and Public Sector Union, the Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (in security and catering areas), the Australian Services Union (in clerical areas) or the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union depending on their job role. The NTEU was allowed to cover general staff as a result of an Australian Industrial Relations Commission decision under the union eligibility rules provisions contained in the Workplace Relations Act 1996.

These provisions, called competitive unionism provisions, were in part designed by the Howard Government to draw unions into fighting amongst themselves. The Australian Council of Trade Unions opposes competitive unionism and demarcation disputes with its National Council resolving that "competitive unionism wastes resources, is destructive of unity and solidarity, results in lesser outcomes and is a barrier to recruitment and retention of members."

The NTEU makes the tenuous claim that this competitive unionism is a means by which workers can feel they can be truly represented. NTEU coverage of general staff within universities was partly born out of the need for the NTEU to enlarge a shrinking academic base and the alleged frustration and lack of accountability of other unions. The NTEU argues that having one union for all university staff is more conducive to solidarity. The NTEU also alleges that it produces better outcomes for staff at universities.

NTEU workers protest Howard's IR reforms

The NTEU is a relatively recent union, formed out of previous white collar staff associations representing academics. It is generally considered to be more towards the left of the union movement, and has a high focus on self-directed membership branches and the organising model of unionism. Nevertheless the union has been criticised from within and outside for its heavily centralised decision making from the national office in Melbourne. As the majority of academics are not conscious of themselves as workers who would need a trade union, the NTEU often engages in organising campaigns to build its membership density. The NTEU is not affiliated with any Australian policial party.

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This article has been tagged since December 2006.