Jill Ovens

[3] Ovens led a group of women in Huntly to deal with the effects of the coal mine worker job cuts.

At the 2003 CTU national conference she called on delegates to push for legislative change to improve work-life balance.

[6] In 1999, as ASTE national president, Ovens was critical of the decision to merge Wellington Polytechnic into Massey University.

The ASTE also worked to protect the interests of all staff under the merger so that polytechnic tutors would be retained and have no salary reductions.

[7] The ASTE opposed a plan by Southland Polytechnic for tutors to settle for a bonus scheme rather than salary increases.

Polytechnic chief executive Penny Simmonds defended the offer, claiming it to be in the best interests of students and staff.

Simmonds argued that the polytechnic was "operating in an area of demographic decline and economic uncertainty" and had to make "long-term decisions to keep student fees low and protect staff jobs."

A stopwork meeting was organised and Ovens warned that industrial action could follow if the polytech refused to budge.

The union pushed for a 2 percent wage rise followed by a similar increase in 2000 rather than the offered one-off bonus of $800 with staggered adjustments to their pay scale next year.

[10] Ovens opposed an overseas university setting up an English language school at the Upper Hutt campus of the Central Institute of Technology (CIT).

In December 2014 Ovens helped lead a walkout of food service workers at Auckland City Hospital.

[16] Ovens was an Alliance candidate in Auckland's Mount Albert electorate in the 1999 and the 2002 elections, both times contesting the seat against Labour leader Helen Clark.

During a fiery debate in November 2001 on Afghanistan at the Alliance party conference Ovens said it "was immediately taken to be a leadership challenge" by Anderton when it was not intended as one.