Stick Together

Australia continues to become a state focused on militarism. The AUKUS agreement planned by former PM Morrison is being set by PM Albanese. The recent defense review paper continues a steady climb for Australia to become a military power in the region. A concerning part of this is the use of the nuclear industry, on this show Tilman Ruff from ICAN speaks about the nuclear threat to Australian poli...

From May 1 to 5 the National Tertiary Education Union, the NTEU, called a national week of action with stop work rallies across Australia’s public Universities.  On Wednesday May 3rd Victorian NTEU members took part in a 24hr strike, with members from Monash, University of Melbourne, RMIT University, La Trobe, VU and Deakin University Branch all joining at Trades Hall in Carlton, for a stop work m...

Today we hear some reflections on the cost-of-living crisis in a rural context from Dave Fox from the AMWU and Secretary of the Bendigo Trades and Labour Council We then draw the lens back to a world trade perspective, IPEF, the Indo Pacific Economic Framework and the most recent update from Trade Justice Fund America on the progress of IPEF the latest US economic pact being hammered out which inc...

This week's Stick Together Program is actually from the vault as far back as 2012 to honour the passing of the well known Father Bob McGuire. The replaying of the program was prompted by the many comments in appreciation of Father Bob's work and that it is always good to learn from his own voice what he was on about. The program was centred on how Unions supported Father Bob's work as he himself s...

Portland local David Rovics spends his time touring across the United States and Europe writing songs that represnt radical politics both historical and current. He recently returned to Australia for the first time in a few years touring across the east coast, host James Brennan spoke with him about his music and some of the campaigns he's witnessed and been apart of across his recent journey. 

On the Wednesday before Easter the CFMMEU Construction and General division called a national day of action in the lead up to their new eba and the upcoming announcements around the Annual Wages Review which sets the pay for the lowest paid workers in Australia. We go to the 20,000 strong Melbourne rally.

 Today two struggles from two different ends of the spectrum with the same issues at the core – pay and conditions.  First we hear from Tony Mavromatis, Victorian State Secretary of the AMWU, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union about the strike action by workers at the Visy Plant in the rural centre Shepparton in Victoria.  Support the strike fund:BANK: NABBSB: 082-057ACCOUNT NUMBER: 18-898...

Today we listen to a fascinating talk by Andrew Leigh, MP Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury in the Federal Labor Government. The talk was fascinating because Leigh gives some analysis of why workers wages are so low despite productivity increases and now soaring prices. Put on by Per Capita the talk was titled : How Uncompetitive Markets Hurt Workers.

Today we are looking at the use of legislative manoeuvring by Governments to suppress dissent. First in Victoria and then in the UK.

This episode continues the interview with James Brennan speaking to David Spratt and Jacob Grech.  For Stick Together's 'Make Love Not War' episode on 15 February they spoke about the 20th anniversary of the Valentines day peace protest. This episode looks at how political organising has changed since then and how we reflect on the peace movement in its succeses and failures. 

To honour International Women’s Day we look at two stories about working women the first a work place victory and the second a push for positive change. We hear from Australian Education Union organiser Hanae Honda here about her days as an AEU delegate and then follow-up the work going on to increase women in the trades first from AMWU's Courteney Munn here and then Hacia Atheron from EWT,  Empow...

Two reports today. We hear from Danny Miller, AMWU the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union organiser at the Visy plant in Shepperton in rural Victoria where the workers have been taking strike action for fair pay since mid-January.   Reminder to those wishing to support the Visy workers you can still donate hereBANK: NABBSB: 082-057ACCOUNT NUMBER: 18-898-9948ACCOUNT NAME: AMWU Disaster Appeal A...

Workers in Australia have seen the slow increases in wages over the last decade wiped off the map by recent inflation. Wages for essential workers are thousands of dollars less than they were 10 years ago. Should workers have to shoulder the brunt of the new inflation wave or is business floating on a wave of profits that they have become addicted to? We ask the hard questions.

On the Valentines day weekend in 2003 millions of people took to the streets across the world to protest the invasion of Iraq. This year marks the 20th anniversary of those protests. On this week's episode of Stick Together host James Brennan speaks with two organisers of the Melbourne protest that kicked off the weekend David Spratt and Jacob Grech.

Part 2 in a chat with Kristen O' Connell from the Anti-Poverty Centre looking at if the change of Federal Government is changing things for people dealing with social security.

We speak with Kristen O'Connell from the Anti-Poverty Centre in a  two part conversation about the political nature of poverty and the practical bureacracy which maintains it in Australia.

Today we are finding out about the Indo Pacific Economic Framework, the latest free trade deal being hammered out between the US and thirteen Indo Pacific Nations including Australia. We hear from Arthur Stamoulis, from Trade Justice Education Fund, for an overview of IPEFand then from Patrick Wadell, from AFL - CIO Technology Institute, for a look at the issues in a digital world when it comes to...

Professor Michael Mann discusses how the new political leaders in the United States and Australia may give us hope to shift climate policy that has been left behind for so long. Join host James Brennan as they discuss these issues ahead of Michael's upcoming NZ and Australian tour. 

At the end of 2022 WRAW Women's Rights at Work Conference gave centre stage to some very interesting discussions around what could be called industrial issues. Giving an insight into how far ranging and inclusive the broader Union movement sees its role when it comes to organising.  Hyeseon Jeong from the Migrant Workers Centre  makes it plain that Migration policy is an industrial issue while Jam...

On the 25th of November there was a sea of orange on the steps of Victorian Parliament House as people gathered at the start of the walk Against Family Domestic Violence. The orange hats from Respect Victoria called for positive change. In today’s program we hear from people at the rally, speakers and an ASU rep who was part of the ground breaking eba negotiation that put domestic violence leave i...

Host James Brennan reflects back on the political year of 2022 with elections reaffirming a Labor governance across a lot fo the country and looking at some of the issues covered throughout the year. We also revisit one of the great interviews from earlier in the year with Kamala Emanuel on the impact of Row v Wade in Australia. 

The FIFA World Cup in Qatar has been built on the bones of thousands of exploited immigrant workers from poor countries. Today we explore the actual practicalities of those workers. Nigel Davies a now retired CFMEU official who was part of the red card for FIFA campaign talks about his experience of doing an OH&S walk through of the conditions for these workers housed in shipping containers in the...

This week I spoke with Ellise from the Renters and Housing Union about the work they have been doing to support tenants in the current housing crisis. We spoke about the challenges tenants face in a system skewed towards investors and the importance of building solidarity amongst members.

Leading the program today is the news from the Svitzer dispute. The threat by Svitzer the Danish multinational, with a near monopoly on towage in Australian ports, to lock out workers came to a head on Friday 18th of November with the Fair Work Commission pulling rank over the threat to the entire Australian economy of such an action.

Stick Together host James Brennan speaks with IPAN (Independent and Peaceful Australia Network) chairperson Annette Brownlie about the upcoming national conference.