QLD public sector strikes show potential, but more is needed
Blue-collar public sector workers across Queensland took to the streets on Monday to demand a 36-hour work week from the state government.
Construction workers from QBuild, QHealth and the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR)—members of the Electrical Trades Union, the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union, the Australian Workers’ Union, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union—walked off the job in Brisbane, Cairns, Townsville and Rockhampton.
In Brisbane, they rallied in Queens Gardens before marching to 1 William Street, the corporate head office for much of the public service. Their demands include higher wages and increased overtime rates from time-and-a-half to double time. One construction worker told Red Flag: “The reason we have decent pay in this industry, compared to the rest of the world, is because we’ve stood up for it time and again”.
Joining them were engineers, who are members of Professionals Australia, a white-collar union. They staged a two-hour work stoppage in solidarity, attending the rallies side by side with construction workers. The engineers are in the midst of their own campaign: their enterprise agreement has expired, and they recently held a statewide stoppage of engineers and technicians—the first in decades.
There has been a slight uptick in industrial action in Queensland in recent months. Teachers staged their first strike in sixteen years. Nurses have been applying work bans. Engineers have launched rolling stoppages. Monday’s strike added construction workers to the list.
But while these actions are important, they are still isolated. They are not the kind of mass strike wave capable of forcing the government to retreat and give better pay and conditions to workers in Queensland.
Premier David Crisafulli’s government is trying to impose an 8 percent deal across the public service. Nurses are poised to accept 11 percent over three years, which the union leaders claim as a nation-leading victory. They have promised that there will be no further strike action. Meanwhile, engineers at TMR—demanding 20 percent to bring their pay into line with colleagues at other state agencies—have been offered nothing serious.
To call 11 percent a “win” is dubious. The last three-year contract also delivered 11 percent, but inflation peaked at more than 7 percent a year during that time. In real terms, the agreement delivered a pay cut. Nurses deserve much more to compensate them for the significant losses imposed by the last deal.
The lesson from Monday is clear. Workers are willing to fight. But isolated actions, divided by sector, will not win what’s needed. The only way to beat Crisafulli and the state’s wages policy is with more strikes—bigger, longer, and united across the public sector.
