Assisted by the two main university trade unions, management at the University of Newcastle (UoN), two hours north of Sydney, succeeded last week in pushing through a new four-year enterprise agreement (EA) that imposes deeper real pay cuts, permits workload increases and facilitates further job cuts and restructuring. University of Newcastle staff strike on March 18, 2026Management’s online ballot, endorsed by the unions, produced a vote of 96.2 percent of academics and 98.5 percent of professional staff in favour of the new agreement. After the last 24-hour stoppage in March and one more NTEU meeting in April, the union kept everything to backroom negotiations. The unions are trying to channel the disaffection and frustration of university workers back into seeking EAs with individual university managements, thus isolating struggles such as the ones at UoN and Western Sydney University. The Accord proposed to tie university funding to “mission-based compacts” based on how well universities serve the designated national priorities.