Thousands of staff across New Zealand’s eight universities will stage a half-day strike this Thursday as part of strike action over failed pay increase negotiations, reports Stuff.co.nz. An estimated 7,000 academics, researchers and general staff from Auckland, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Canterbury, Lincoln, Massey, Otago, Victoria and Waikato universities will take part in the strike action. It does not include polytechs. This marks 20 years since the first and only time all universities have held strikes in unison and comes just weeks out from the end of term and students’ exams.

Tertiary Education Union (TEU) members say they are angry and worried about the future of the sector, with the union calling for an 8% payrise for its members amid concerns of a widening gap between wages and inflation. Negotiations between the union and the university sector began in July, but months later still had not reached an agreement.

Underpinning contract negotiations was the need for pay rates to keep pace with annual inflation – a figure which reached a 32-year high of 7.3% in July. Although the eight universities have different collective agreements, the unions have co-ordinated so strikes will take place in unison. Across the sector, 87% of union members were in favour of striking.