Late last semester, Melbourne University management kicked some extra labour onto casual tutors in the Faculty of Arts. They didn’t expect tutors to kick back.

In a series of meetings called by the National Tertiary Education Union, casual tutors in the faculty discussed their exploitative working conditions and began organising.

Following a wider call, the Melbourne University Casuals Network met for the first time in early August. We discussed the conditions of casual exploitation at the University – the huge amounts of unpaid labour that we’re expected to do, as well as the anxiety of chronically insecure work.

Some of the network’s first steps were to try to establish a presence. A small but vocal group at the recent education funding national day of action raised a banner for the network and casual conditions.

The network now faces the challenge of further building its profile, with casual workers spread thin on a large but decentralised campus. We must attract members by giving them opportunities to work on campaigns and public events.

Another challenge the network faces is dealing with the argument that it should not be affiliated with the NTEU. The few who argue this are right to be concerned about the network’s independence and to be critical of the union leadership. But to organise outside the union would be a mistake.

The Casuals Network should organise as a rank and file group within the NTEU. In this way it can maintain its independence from the NTEU leadership while pushing the union to throw its significant industrial weight behind the casuals’ fight.

The Casuals Network at Sydney University organises in this way. It meets separately from the NTEU branch. It makes its own democratic decisions, which can be carried out by the network, as an active working body within the union. The network draws resources from the NTEU branch committee but does not require its approval for decisions or action.

By pushing casual workers’ issues onto the bargaining table and by participating in ongoing strike action, it has already forced Sydney University management to agree to 80 new ongoing jobs specifically available to workers currently employed on a casual basis.

Permanent university staff are also threatened by the casualisation that is rampant in the sector. They share an interest in improvements for casual workers, just as casual workers have a stake in the struggle for decent conditions for all workers on the campuses.

Through industrial action, union members at Melbourne University have already fought back against the university’s attempts to slash by $10 an hour pay for professional casuals working and studying at the university. They have fought off an attack on academic freedom in the form of management’s grab for the right to sack academics whose work doesn’t align with the university’s “strategic goals”. With a Casuals Network drawing casual workers into the fight, we can win even more from the EBA campaign and build for the struggles beyond that.

The Sydney University Casuals Network has won what it has so far by acting in solidarity with the collective weight of the union. If the Melbourne University Network wants weight behind any kick it delivers to management, it will need to do the same.