The system is broken, but we can’t rely on the ALP to change the rules
The system is broken. Soaring bonuses at the top, rampant wage theft below. Corporate rorts left unchecked in the executive suites, the full weight of the police, courts and governments thrown at unions taking action. The fat cats rolling in money, the mass of workers left to rot. Far from...CONTINUE READING
Lessons from the Your Rights at Work campaign
As unions launch a round of protests under the Change the Rules banner, it’s worth recalling the history of the Your Rights at Work campaign, which concluded in 2007. Directed against the Howard government’s anti-worker WorkChoices legislation, Your Rights at Work protests were the biggest...CONTINUE READING
Behind the battle at the bureau: weather workers’ long fight
Union members at the Bureau of Meteorology took strike action on 19 April as part of an enterprise agreement dispute that started in 2014. Over the course of bargaining, BoM staff have been offered some of the worst deals on pay and conditions in the Australian public service. With a workf...CONTINUE READING
After strike ban, NSW rail workers’ campaign loses steam
The campaign by NSW railway workers has come to a disappointing end, management winning a slim majority for a new enterprise agreement. The deal falls well short of the demands of railway workers. After the Fair Work Commission banned a planned rail workers’ strike, Sydney Trains and NSW T...CONTINUE READING
Truckies protest unsafe conditions as deaths soar
Hundreds of truck drivers and their supporters protested around Australia on 18 April to demand safer working conditions. With almost 40 percent of all workplace deaths last year involving a transport worker, trucking is one of the deadliest industries in the country. The protests, organis...CONTINUE READING
Victorian delegates meet for Change the Rules campaign
More than 1,600 unionists crammed into Melbourne’s Town Hall on 17 April for an all-union delegates meeting to launch the next phase of the Change the Rules campaign, which will involve street demonstrations around the country in coming weeks. Two hundred delegates couldn’t squeeze into th...CONTINUE READING
Are unions doomed to fail?
It is often argued that the decline in employment in blue collar work, the closure of big factories, the impact of new technologies and privatisation and the growth of “non-standard” work (casualisation, outsourcing etc.) and job insecurity are responsible for falling unionisation rates be...CONTINUE READING
Building a union culture at work
It’s no secret that unions aren’t in a good place. Strikes are down, wages are down, and union membership is at an all-time low. Unions are getting older, with the membership rate among 20 to 24 year olds at just 7 percent. The statistics are damning. But if you wandered down to the call c...CONTINUE READING
Striking for their lives: Qube wharfies want an end to dangerous conditions
Bound for Singapore, the cargo ship Figaro was scheduled to leave a Melbourne port on 18 March. Instead, a dockworkers’ strike left the 75,000 tonne vehicle carrier stranded; its valuable cargo floating in Port Phillip Bay for days. Ships such as Figaro are responsible for moving 90 percen...CONTINUE READING