Stick Together

Swinburne University has been taken to court over industrial tactics and lost three times in the last 2 years. Now they're threatening to cut workers wages if they don't have a new agreement before Christmas. Later in the show we'll catch up with NTEU Victorian secretary Colin Long to discuss Swinburne's union -busting tactics. First up we hear from CPSU deputy national president Rupert Evans on t...

Discussing the fight for dignity and fair treatment of hospitality workers with Kahlani Pyrah (United Voice, Socialist Alternative) and her case against the corporate management of Grilld. Also, talking about the latest developments in the cooperative sector with Rick Duke from the Fleurieu Poultry Assoication cooperative in South Australia, and discussing the progress of EarthWorker with Mark Tyl...

A talk with a long-time revolutionary socialist and trade unionist, Bob Carnegie, recently elected as state secretary of the Queensland branch of the Maritime Union of Australia. We will discuss the current issues facing maritime workers, the ongoing Caltex dispute and the need for a collective struggle against the insecure work and casualisation. We will also have a chat with Liz Turner, the comm...

Alexander Spirit crew refuse to budge after Caltex say they will be replaced in Singapore; Anthony Albanese talks about the latest Government attacks on cabotage; Kate Mitchell from Southern Cross University tells how NTEU influenced the no vote by general staff to insulting EBA offer.

Trade unions have been active in Timor Leste since 2001 when the Timor Leste Confederation of Trade Unions (KSTL) was formed with support from Australian unions. The major employer at the time was the United Nations and the young country was still under UN administration. Aside from very high unemployment and a government eager to attract foreign investment often at the expense of workers' rights,...

Senator Janet Rice talks about the ongoing Senate committee investigation of temporary visa which will report in August; Kevin Bracken & Dave Oliver address a MUA demo on the subject of Free Trade Deals that are serving Australian workers on a plate to the big end of town; Associate Professor Angela Knox from Sydney University Business School says Job Quality is important to Australia's bottom lin...

The campaign for the rights of cleaners has been gaining momentum, with the recent 24-hour strike of the workers in Federal Parliament, and a rally and march organised by the United Voice in Melbourne. Meanwhile, the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union has been gearing for the campaign against further unemployment and welfare cuts. In Ireland, the ongoing dispute between the retail workers at Dun...

While the Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry down plays its call for removal of penalty rates cleaners call for penalty rate protection at the International Day for Justice for Cleaners rallies; the SDA Coles Deal queried by Fair Work Commission for under award payments.

Trade unions have been active in Timor Leste since 2001 when the Timor Leste Confederation of Trade Unions (KSTL) was formed with support from Australian unions. The major employer at the time was the United Nations and the young country was still under UN administration. Aside from very high unemployment and a government eager to attract foreign investment often at the expense of workers' rights,...

ACTU Congress 2015 preparing for the next Federal election with the declaration that the ACTU was wrong to put aside its campaigning tools after the defeat of the Howard Government. Dave Oliver declares that the ACTU will stop being a 'transactional' organisation and focus on campaigning. Dave Noonan (CFMEU) talks up for the workers in Qatar; and we hear the disapportment regarding the $16 not $27...

We will look at and analyze the stories of workers' struggles in the most precarious and difficult working conditions from the past and present. We will look behind the story of "Jobs for Women" campaign of the Wollongon Steel Mills from the 1980s and 1990s that fought gender segregation and united unemployed and immigrant women together with the unions and the local community. We will also take a...

The CPSU start rolling stikes across Australia we report on the Bureau of Meterorology workers rallying in Melbourne. The CFMEU have been singled out again by Senate laws to retain coercive powers to building regulator; the ACTU & Victorian Trades Halls sign MOU with West Papuans ahead of Melanesian Spearhead Group conference.

The NSW election was won by the Mike Baird-led Liberal National coalition and the 99-year lease of NSW's transmission and distribution network is all set to go ahead. On the show this week we hear from Electrical Trades Union state secretary Steve Butler about the impact of the sell-off on workers, the community and the environment. We'll also hear from Australian Services Union assistant national...

While Australian workers celebrate May Day Aurizon, Australia's biggest frieght company has been given the go ahead by the Fair Work Commission to get rid of 12 conditions and return to the basic safety net when negotiating the EBA with its workers. The Fair Work Commission says maternity leave and job security protection is not in the 'public interest' because it makes a company unproductive. Pro...

April 24th marked the second anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster - a case of industrial manslaughter of monstrous proportions. With 1,129 confirmed dead in the aftermath, and thousands of others injured or still missing under the rabble, it was the single biggest disaster in the history of the garments industry worldwide. Joining us for the discussion is Jerome Small (Industrial Organiser, Soci...

Today we mark the centenary of the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli with a discussion about the Australian labour movement's response to the First World War, and how the war changed Australia's political landscape. Interview with Joan Beaumont, ANU, author of Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War.

We all have to sell our labour at rates dictated by global markets. For some people this means a few cents an hour for others it can be a living wage that provides housing and food security. For those who set their own pay rates because they own the means of production it can be millions of dollars an hour. Casey Jenkins has just finished performing 3 weeks of a performance art piece called Body o...

Marxism Conference 2015 concluded recently in Melbourne. Among a range of prominent international and local speakers, the two that stood out the most were Emory Douglas, the former Minister for Culture of the Black Panther Party, and Eamonn McCann, a long-time Irish socialist and civil rights campaigner. The show's topic focused on the experience of the two activists and the assessment of today's...

Swinburne settles court case with NTEU, which alleged adverse action when Swinburne tried to move staff into a subsidiary company, with lower pay and conditions. Centrelink and Medicare workers take 10 days of industrial action nationwide. And labour activists criticise cuts to penalty rates in a template agreement between the SDA and Business South Australia. Interviews with Colin Long, Vic Secre...

This episode asks the question why are short term visas being used to put Australian film technicians out of work when the ICC World Cup Cricket is playing in town. Ged Kearney the ACTU President explains why it is so important that wage inequality between women and men needs to be change.

The ban on uranium mining will be reinstated by the Palaszczuk government in QLD. Under the LNP government the state was opened up for exploration and mining despite a decades-long ban. The re-instatement of the ban follows pressure from unions, especially the ETU and AMWU, and community campaigns against the re-opening of mines in Northern and Northwestern QLD. We speak with AMWU national preside...

The ACTU called a national day of action on March 4, 2015 as the start of the unions campaign to fight back against the Federal Governments review of all basic working conditions throught the Productivity Commission. This report takes us to the Melbourne rally.

Community Organizing among trade unions is on the rise again, so what can we learn from the experiences around the world? We will take a look at the Community Membership initiative of Unite the Union in Britain, as well as the work conducted by political organising centre, Trademark, among Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast. Interviews with Kelly Tomlinson (Unite the Union) and Stevie...

Coles tries to cut pay and conditions by shutting the meat workers union out of its latest EBA; interview with Paul Conway, Victorian secretary AMIEU. And the Greens push for portable long-service leave rights across Australia; interview with Greens MLA for South Australia Tammy Franks.

Calls for people working on 457 and 417 visas to be paid award rates and conditions. Recent scandals have show the bugs under the rock of the Abbott Governments employment policy rock as the government takes the country on a head long charge into the global rush to the bottom when it comes to labour hire.