History shows BlueScope didn't fare well when it threatened to close down the whole show and sack up to 10,000 jobs in the steelworks and broader community.

And in his opinion piece for the Mercury, Mr Rorris writes UOW will come out looking just as bad if it tries to serve its region a similar 's**t sandwich'.

Mr Rorris wrote while BlueScope's corporate blackmail was driven by its shareholders, UOW is a publicly-owned university and will not get away with forcing staff to either 'accept pay cuts with job cuts or you will get even bigger job cuts and pay cuts'.

He went on to also expose the elephants in the room.

"Universities may think and at times act as multinational corporations....but they are public institutions owned by the people and must be held accountable to the people whose taxes pay for them.

"When our community demands that the University bosses open the books and reveal the true state of their finances and the size of their reserves it is not a request from an interested third party, it is an expectation from the owners of the institution," Mr Rorris wrote.

Read more: How did it all go so wrong, so fast for UOW?

The respected union leader also called on UOW not to save 'its significant assets and reserves for a rainy day', arguing over 10,000 have already lost their jobs in the region due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He also hit at UOW for its 'exploitation of the growing pool of casual and insecure workers and full fee international students'.

"This crisis did not start with a pandemic in the last two months, it has been coming for two decades. The cancer starts when you start operating as a business and not as an educational institution."

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