Alex White
Presenter Spotlight: Alex White – A Union of Influence
Date: 24-Jul-2009
Alex White, Communications and Campaign Officer for the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), delivering his first Climate Project presentation just three days after the Asia-Pacific Summit to 30 Victorian Union organisers.
“I was very opportunistic in giving my first presentation,” says Alex. “I knew that we had an Organisers meeting scheduled for the week after the Summit. After the Summit finished, I simply arranged to be added to the agenda of the meeting.”
He did a shortened half hour version of the presentation with a focus on issues such as green jobs, renewable energy and the drought.
“There was a strong agreement that the Union should be doing more on climate change, and we all committed to assisting in organising more presentations for NTEU members at every university in Victoria.”
Alex has also committed to doing a presentation at the NTEU National Council later this year – a gathering of over 100 academics and university staff from around Australia.
“Presenting in front of unionists, their main question was: "What should we do?" There is an understanding of the real and urgent danger of climate change, and most of them wanted to know what they could do to help.”
Outside of his Union work, Alex has also arranged to meet with his local Mayor and hopes to give a presentation to his local council in the near future.