Diane Zetlin
Union official and academic Diane Zetlin has worked in an academic capacity at the University of Queensland since 1976. She became involved with the Federated Australian University Staff Association (FAUSA) as President, and was involved in the amalgamation of unions to form the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), of which she later became General Secretary. Her career has spanned radical changes in political and social attitudes, and she discusses changing conditions for tertiary workers and the role of women in trade unions.
Diane Zetlin
Biography
Union official and academic Diane Zetlin has worked in an academic capacity at the University of Queensland since 1976, including as Lecturer in the School of Political Science. At the beginning of her career, Diane became involved with the Federated Australian University Staff Association (FAUSA), a precursor to the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU). She became President of FAUSA, and was involved in the amalgamation of unions to form the NTEU, of which she later became General Secretary.
Diane Zetlin was born in Brisbane in the 1940s and raised in the Darling Downs and on the Gold Coast. She attended the Surfers Paradise State School and then the Southport State High School, and was one of only three people in her graduating class to continue on to university. Diane began a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland (UQ) in the early 1960s.
Although she had little to do with trade unions or politics growing up, Diane ensconced herself in politics at the UQ campus. When she first arrived she found the campus quite conservative and witnessed the change it made during the 1960s to become the home of radical students and student activism. Diane became involved with the Society for Democratic Action and the Foco Club. Upon completion of her Bachelor of Arts with Honours, Diane was appointed to her first academic position at UQ in 1976, and began her involvement with first FAUSA and later the NTEU.
In the course of her career as a union official, as President with FAUSA and as General Secretary with the NTEU, Diane worked to improve conditions for tertiary educators. The results have included the award restructuring in the 1980s, which ensured fairer wages, as well as the formation of the NTEU as a national body representing all tertiary educators.
Diane Zetlin’s career has spanned radical changes in political and social attitudes, and she has witnessed many of these changes first hand.
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