The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander membership of the NTEU has climbed to its highest levels ever in the past couple of months, and is only a few new members away from reaching a key milestone. This mirrors the uptake in membership across the union to an extent; with university staff signing up due to a tough bargaining round and increasingly insecure working conditions; however it’s important to note that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff remain the most unionised in the higher education sector. Our trend of joining the union at double the rate of everyone else has continued and our strength in numbers has manifested not just in a number of solid motions going to this year’s National Council but also in some good bargaining outcomes during this round, in spite of the rest of bargaining being quite challenging. More...