Union members at James Cook U meet this morning to kick-off the no campaign against management’s pay-offer, which staff will vote on next week. The university acted unilaterally to bring on a vote, instead of waiting to reach an agreement with the National Tertiary Education Union after deciding talks had failed. However the union says it had proposed a settlement which meant proportionally more money for lower-paid staff and a $7m overall increase across the agreement. JCU’s 2016 staff costs were $273m.