Source: Tertiary Education Union
TEU members at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland, are calling for protections at work around the use of AI in their current collective agreement negotiations.
Leon Salter, Senior Lecturer in Communication and TEU Auckland University branch committee member, says that a lack of clear communication and consultation around use of AI galvanised their branch membership into action.
“After a town hall run by the former Vice Chancellor last year where we were told that we were going to embrace AI in our work, we ran a survey with our membership. There were strong responses of reservation that Auckland Uni management was proceeding without staff consultation or planning and that AI use didn't meet the university's own Sustainable Development Goals and Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
“This led to us drafting claims that we've now brought to the table at our current collective agreement negotiations.”
Jean Love, a bioinformatician and TEU Auckland branch co-president, says our claims are about getting agreed principles on AI and staff co-design of AI systems that are brought in.
“We want to ensure that these systems are not detrimental to jobs, privacy, student learning outcomes and our teaching and research work. We also want some transparency around use – people knowing if a certain tool is right for job, how the university is using AI, and that people understand how the AI tools work.”
Leon Salter says staff are seeing the impact of AI use on teaching and research.
“We're redesigning our assessments so that we can test students' real knowledge, but there's no resourcing or space for this and it's causing huge workloads and anxiety for teaching and academic staff.
“Students feel they're getting mixed messages – they're being encouraged to use it but they're also worried they'll get in trouble if they do. They also feel that they're not getting value for money if AI is used to design and do marking on a course. There's also equity issues, between students who can afford premium AI models to use in their work and those who can't.”
TEU members also have concerns around future costs of AI tools and data sovereignty, which is especially important with academic research.
Leon Salter says their Australian union colleagues at the National Tertiary Education Union, who recently led a strike at University of Sydney over AI use and job security, were ahead in their claims development which has helped TEU Auckland members proceed in their negotiations for real consultation with management.
“What we do know is that it is very important that human expertise and human responsibility is at the centre of any work, that's what we want to ensure at University of Auckland.”
TEU Co-President Ti Lamusse says that across tertiary education institutions there are enormous concerns from staff with a lack of concrete policy from employers.
“Our Auckland university colleagues are leading the charge here. AI use is the number one stress with the academics I talk to, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. They’re worried about the use of AI for the integrity of assessment and qualifications, for future of quality tertiary education, and the future of work – particularly HR practices around hiring, firing and disciplinary processes.”
Lamusse, who is a lecturer in criminology at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington says that he’s noticed AI use undermining students’ own confidence in their ability to answer questions.
“I’ve noticed students have become increasingly lacking in confidence to write in their own voices, and turning to AI to answer basic concept questions that a few years ago they could just answer. This indicates to me an overreliance on technology and lack of confidence in their own recall. They’re also really stressed about entry level jobs being replaced by AI.”
Lamusse says professional staff in tertiary education also have a range of views – some seeing it as helping them to do their jobs better, and others worrying about job losses.
“Even those who are relatively supportive of the use of AI are still concerned around the environmental costs of AI use. At the moment across the universities we’re seeing spectrum of approaches from management, from enthusiastic use to conservative approaches.”
Ti Lamusse says TEU has a working group drafting policy for feedback right now, with staff-student human relationships being central in policy.
“We’re looking at what union members around the world are doing in response to AI use. The Commonwealth Public Sector Union (CPSU) has a great set of principles around maintaining human decision-making over core human-impacted outcomes. We want to ensure hiring practices remain with humans, no jobs losses, and meaningful and ongoing consultation between staff and management over any AI policy. With lack of concrete policy leadership from university management and at a government level, it’s going to be up to unions to push for robust frameworks that protects work.”