The opening months of 2017 have been fast and furious for Queensland unions.
Big business has convinced the Fair Work Commission to cut Sunday and public holiday penalty rates, and the federal Coalition is supporting what would be the largest pay cut for workers since the Great Depression.
There was a massive community turnout at #EnoughisEnough rallies in Brisbane and the Gold Coast on 9 March, showing the federal government that working people will stand up against these attacks on penalty rates, rights at work and workplace safety!
Thousands at those events also spoke out against corporate evasion of workplace laws, all as workers go backwards in wages while corporate giants have taxes cut!
The next step is stopping these wage cuts hitting workers in our clubs!
Elsewhere union members have been active and successful in early education, as well as saving funding for a service that assists working women.
There’s been progress on important issues at a state level, with input from union members instrumental in a new state Industrial Relations Act that addresses the industrial vandalism of the Newman LNP years.
Other campaigns and actions are underway. All this and much more on our wrap-up page.
Ros McLennan
General Secretary
Queensland Council of Unions
Thousands of workers and community members turned out at last week’s national rally against continuing attacks on workers.
In an historic action on 8 March, more than one thousand educators walked off the job to demand equal pay!
Community support and the ongoing campaign by IEUA-QNT members has ensured that C&K (the Creche & Kindergarten Association) has finally agreed to “cut the cuts” and protect existing conditions for employees in C&K Branch Centres.
Queensland’s CFMEU Mining and Energy Division continues to work tirelessly to highlight and address the critical occupational health issue of Black Lung.
Sally McManus was this week elected as new Secretary of the ACTU and immediately pledged to stop the attack on Australian workers through penalty rate cuts.
Centrelink, Medicare and Child Support workers in Queensland will join national strike action this Friday, as talks aimed at resolving enterprise bargaining within the Department of Human Services have once again failed to break the impasse.
MP for Cairns Rob Pyne has withdrawn his abortion law reform legislation, in the face of an obstructionist Opposition that is content with leaving Queensland in the last century.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union blitzed regional manufacturing centres this month calling for train building work to be reshored in Queensland, and slamming the former LNP government for ordering “shoddy” passenger trains from India.
It’s hard to believe it’s a year since the threatened deportation of baby Asha and her family galvanised the community together against the cruel and inhumane asylum seeker policies of the federal government.
A bored politician is a dangerous politician! That’s the only conclusion to be drawn from the dumb post LNP MP Andrew Laming made toward the end of January, questioning the work ethics and validity of educators across Australia.
This month marks the beginning of new laws in Queensland that deliver a fairer deal for hundreds of thousands of Queensland workers.
Members of The Services Union at the Queensland Working Women’s Service have been successful in lobbying for funding to continue its vital work.