What an INCREDIBLE three days – and what a difference ‘hope’ makes.
170+ of the best people it’s possible to imagine from every corner of the tertiary education sector and from almost every walk of life, all totally committed to making the world a better and more equal place for everyone.
It’s not often that I feel like I fit but here I did. I was welcomed, loved, my voice respected even when it shook, and it mattered so much that I identify as a lippy, ‘Silent Generation’, takataapui, whakawahine, Radical Socialist Queer co-learner that it simply didn’t matter at all.
That’s rare, but that’s how unions SHOULD be.
And the TEU is.
I’ve be ‘union’ all my life. I guess I got that from my dad who was a Waterside Worker’s Union organiser in the early ‘50s, a Rubber Workers Union Secretary and a member of the PSA.
I joined the NZEI as a student in 1963 and remained a member until 1976 serving, in that time, as Branch Secretary of the Taranaki and Mangonui branches and as both paid Secretary and member of the North Canterbury Branch.
I then joined Actor’s Equity in 1976, became a member of the Auckland executive and remain a member today.
In 1983 I joined the Southern Local Government Officer’s Union and in 1987 became treasurer a role I performed for 8 years until 1995.
In 1996 I joined the PPTA and, changing circumstances in 1998, saw me enter the tertiary sector where I have since been ever since as a member of the various iterations and amalgamations that have finally settled down as TEU.
I’m now a member of our branch executive at AUT and have been a branch delegate to 4 annual conferences and three (at least) Te Kahukura (Rainbow) conferences. Thinking about it just now, I’ve been a union member locally and have worked at grassroots and national level in the movement for 55 years (this was some years ago, it’s now 2025 and well over 60 years) through good times and some bloody bad times. I’ve marched, rallied, sung, shouted, texted, tweeted, posted, challenged and, yes, been arrested and been an all-round nuisance to governments, managements and employers for all that time all for the sake of improving the conditions of the most vulnerable.
It’s hard to measure the difference we ever make as individuals but collectively we can – and I’m immensely proud of my comrades for what we have achieved over the years – and no more so than today. ‘Stronger together’ isn’t just a glib phrase, it’s a reality and, when led by the likes of Sharn Riggs and Sandra Grey, it gives the seemingly impossible a better than reasonable fighting chance. I am so in awe of these women because they give me strength and always with intelligence, commitment, laughter and aroha. They keep me strong as the body wavers with age, and they help me to remember that, while there’s still work to do, there’s life in the old bitch yet.
Which side am I on?
Union.
‘Stronger together’.
dykiegirl 