The NTEU UQ Branch Newsletter Issue 16

Monday, 24 AUGUST 2026

Get ready for (more) industrial action!

24 August 2026

In this newsletter:

• Reminders: Hands off our UQU action (Wednesday, 25 Aug) + planned half-day strike for NTEU members (Tuesday, 8 Sept)

• Your photos from Red Wednesday!

• What bans are happening now, what ban starts next week, and other industrial action info;

• Why you should write to the VC and tell her NOT to monitor your private social media, thanks;

• Trans rights, union power and collective action;

• Let us know if you’re nominating for Academic Board.

Join us!

To find out more, visit our website: www.uqsolidarity.com

Email us your story: uqactivists@nteu.org.au

To join your union: nteu.au/join

Reminders - upcoming actions!

Red Wednesday

What a Red Wednesday! Across UQ last week, union members stood together—wearing red, putting up posters, handing out leaflets, talking with colleagues, and beginning our protected industrial action.

Red Wednesday showed what worker solidarity looks like in practice: colleagues standing alongside colleagues and using our collective power to demand something better.

Every red shirt, every poster, every conversation and every act of industrial action sent the same message to management: we are united, we are organised, and we are prepared to fight for a better and fairer UQ for everyone.

This is how we win—together.

Current and Upcoming Industrial Actions - Information and Resources

The current UQ-wide work bans are:

• interrupting work periodically in order to make statements while working explaining why members of the National Tertiary Education Union are taking industrial action. (That just means that you can pause your work to tell/ email/ make statements to other staff and/or students about the fact that we’re taking industrial action); and

• meetings with supervisors, managers and deans.

Any NTEU member can enact these bans at any time.

UPCOMING BAN: NTEU workers will enact a ban on the use of WORKDAY from Monday 31 Aug – Friday 4 September 2026. For those who wish to apply for leave, or approve leave, they should do so by lodging that request via 'askhr@uq.edu.au'.

NB: Industrial action works when it disrupts business as usual: this ban will put real pressure on HR and management by interrupting the systems they rely on—and that disruption is precisely how we build the leverage needed to win a fair agreement.

RESOURCES!

Need a red NTEU t-shirt? If you’re at St Lucia, come on down to the NTEU office (Prentice building, room 217) and grab one! (If you’re on another campus, write to Kate - uq@nteu.org.au - and she can send you one via internal mail.)

Need a poster? An example of an email footer, a zoom background, a PPT for teaching, or an automatic response?

Check out our great collection of resources for members: https://www.uqsolidarity.com/protected-industrial-action-resources

Got a cool idea for a resource? Let us know! uqactivists@nteu.org.au 😊

——-

Wanna run a local action?

If your work area wants to enact your own (local) industrial action, you are very welcome to do so! E.g., maybe you and your fellow workers don’t want to use Workday for a week 😊. If that’s the case, please contact the Branch Committee (uq@nteu.org.au) so we can confirm the details, provide advice, and ensure members are appropriately protected.

Got questions? Get in touch! uqactivists@nteu.org.au or uq@nteu.org.au

Academic Freedom, Not Surveillance:

Take Action Now

The Group of Eight’s Expert Advisory Committee on Combatting Antisemitism (EACCA) has proposed changes that could fundamentally reshape university life—and every UQ staff member should know what is being proposed.

A new joint UQU–NTEU analysis warns that the recommendations go far beyond combating antisemitism. If implemented, they could expand executive powers to monitor staff and students, scrutinise social media activity, regulate protest and political expression, and intervene in curriculum and teaching. They also threaten to move aside existing protections for academic freedom under the French Model Code, while offering few corresponding safeguards for transparency, accountability and independent scrutiny.

Of particular concern is the creation of an infrastructure for ongoing surveillance. Once powers to monitor staff and student social media become embedded in university policy, they could remain available to management long after the immediate controversy used to justify them has passed.

We’re asking members to do three things: (1) read the short summary, (2) read the full UQU–NTEU analysis, and then (3) take action. Go HERE to download the papers.

Write to Vice-Chancellor Professor Deborah Terry and tell her not to implement the EACCA recommendations at UQ. Ask her instead to lead the sector by standing up for academic freedom, civil liberties, transparent and accountable governance—and our right to teach, research, speak and organise without being subjected to a new regime of institutional surveillance.

Read. Share. Write to the VC. Tell UQ: academic freedom, not surveillance.

Trans rights, union power and collective action!

Trans rights are under attack around the world. The NTEU, the union for all higher education staff, is campaigning for gender affirmation leave and standing up for trans rights.

Join us on Wear It Purple Day to shape our ongoing campaign.

Trans rights, union power and collective action
2pm (AEST), Friday 28 August
RSVP at: nteu.info/wearitpurple

Have you nominated for Academic Board?

Nominations for Academic Board close today, Monday, 24 August. The subsequent elections will be run 31 August - 11 September.

If you’re an NTEU member - and are prepared to join in the AB caucus* - then please let us know! Please email us (uqactivists@nteu.org.au) by COB Tuesday 25 August, so the UQ Branch can communicate to members, supporting your nomination.

*The caucus meets prior to each meeting to scrutinise the papers, and to prepare points of discussion at AB.

View full post