Stick Together

The issue of suppressed wages and insecure work is a worm destroying the apple of Australian life. We hear from a former Geelong Svitzer worker about how the company forced redundencies to bring in labour hire workers to do their jobs. We hear from Sally McManus you talks about The Broken Bargain Australia's growing wages crisis.

This week on Stick Together two new hosts join the program: James Brennan spoke with hospitality worker Mercedes Zanker about recent changes to the membership model of Hospo Voice, a youth-targeted subsidiary of the United Workers Union. Afterwards, Jackson McInerney interviews Renuka (name withheld), who has been casually employed to roll out the vaccine in aged care. 

Loads of union news and an interview I did with Dave Kerin from Earthworker Cooperative about why they believe we need to move our economy away from militarism.

Changes to Superannuation mean that young workers will be 'stapled' to their first fund for life unless they change with the industry they work in later in life. This can have fatal affects for those moving into dangerous industries without covering insurance. We talk to Dave Noonan from the CFMMEU Construction Division.

This week we talk with Dr Patricia Ranald from the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network about the recent in principle free trade agreement made between the UK and Australia. We talk about some of the concerns raised about the exploitation of farm workers and animal welfare standards. We also talk about the lack of transparency and democratic processes surrounding the making of the agreemen...

Today Stick Together is going to the recent hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Job Security link. The focus is on Amazon. What happened to the union vote at the Amazon Bessemer Warehouse? What is Amazon Flex and how does it exploit workers and undermine the delivery industry?

This week there's heaps of news and then we catch up on some regional news from Dave Fox, Vice-President of Bendigo Trades Hall Council.

We’ll hear from Lara Watson the National Indigenous Officer at the Australian Council of Trade Unions the ACTU who has been part of a four-year campaign to have the CDP in it’s present form to be stopped. We will also hear some comments from some speakers at the recent ACOSS the Australian Council of Social Service budget reply seminar as they wonder aloud at what the Federal Government might have...

On Friday May 21 the School Strike for Climate Change rallies were held in 50 sites across Australia including the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Queensland, Western Australia, NSW, South Australia, the ACT, and Victoria. Major Cities and Provincial Centres. A call for action with Union representatives calling for a just transition to good jobs in an Australia no longer dependent on fossil fuel ind...

Members First Campaign is contesting the leadership of the Manufacturing Division of the CFMMEU in contested election - the first in over thirty years.#TheirBudget, Our Lives - the Australian Unemployed Workers Union and the Anti-Poverty Network Budget reply.

Last week the Young Workers Centre rallied Apprentices and their supporters together to kick off a campaign calling for change to a work-place culture which puts them at risk for their lives and their future. We hear some of their stories and the solution to this wicked state if affairs.

Today we cover two events that happened last week:  International workers Memorial Day & May Day celebrations that mark International Workers Day.

We look at ageism and how it affects older workers and the EveryAGE Counts Campaign which is working against negative trends.

The regulation of cargo ships came into sharp focus this month when two ships were detained because they lacked fuel and food and amenities for their crews. We speak to Ian Bray from the the ITF about the situation. We also look at what is at stake for the SA Ambulance Employees Association as they call for the end of ambulance ramping in their State.

I talk with Max Ogden, author of "A long view from the left" about his role in the union movement and his passion for bringing arts into the workplace and industrial democracy.

The cuts to Jobseeker will throw social security recipients to below poverty payments. The cuts to Jobkeeper imperil a million workers. We report on rallies calling for the breaking of the poverty machine held around the country with the cut to Jobseeker and Keeper payments at the end of March.

The 31st of March is the Transgender Day of Visibility. For this week's episode Tilde will interview a Dani Cotton from the NTEU about the industrial issues trans people face, the particular challenges for the higher education sector, and the opporunities for social movement unionism as trans people come under attack from religious discrimination legislation.

News on the Omnibus Bill, Hungry Panda riders and more, and we take a look at how today's apprenticeships don't look anything like they did in 1969. Felicity Sowerbutts from the Young Workers Centre talks about the issues apprentices face today and how we can support them.

We cover some union news and then we hear from a 94 year old woman about her thoughts on work, being a worker and what she thinks of the aged care system.

Seattle City Light hired 10 women for the first time in the 1970's and fired them because of rampant sexism.  It ended in a 7 ½ year legal battle for reinstatement of the women workers. We go to the Melbourne launch of Ellie Belew's book High Voltage Women, published by Red Letter Press, which tells the story of these heroic women workers.

This week we speak to Josh Cullinan, secretary of the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, RAFFWU, about casualisation, wage theft and the government's proposed omnibus bill.

Have you ever thought about the health of the people driving the trucks that keep the economy moving? This week we look at the first major survey of truck drivers which shows shocking results for Australia’s most common job for men. We include a tribute to Anne Feeney (1951-2021).

This week we cover news about wage theft, the gig-economy, forced labour and as always workers standing up for their rights. I also talk with Dave Fox from Bendigo Trades Hall about Victoria's first workplace death for 2021. 

We caught up with Bernie Constable a shearer and member of the Shearers and Rural Workers Union. Today we get another perspective on what is happening for an industry affected by apparent labour shortages because of covid.

We look at the cuture war surrounding Invasion Day, reflect on the First Nations struggle in 2020 and examine two massive strikes of Indigenous workers during the 20th century.