Union members at the University of Melbourne have voted to take protected industrial action as enterprise bargaining progresses from prolonged to protracted. Just under 70 per cent of National Tertiary Education Union members on campus turned out for the poll, and 92 per cent of them supported direct action, including possible 24-hour strikes. While the union does not represent a majority of staff, industrial action by members will increase pressure on management to settle a process now running for over a year. Among a raft of outstanding issues are a single agreement (management wants separate deals for academic and professional staff) and an explicit statement of freedom of expression in the new agreement (management says it is already protected). And they are not even arguing about money yet.