The ACTU will today unveil a claim for a 6% increase in the national minimum wage, which would translate to an extra $43 a week for Australia's lowest-paid workers.
The NUW claims the Chemist Warehouse group has sought to immediately break an indefinite strike, which started today at warehouses in Victoria and Queensland.
In a battle of recruitment and rostering promises, the nurses and midwives union is calling on NSW's Berejiklian Government to match the state Opposition's pledge to fund legislated nurse-to-patient ratios of 1:4 during the day, 1:7 on night shifts and 1:3 for midwives if it wins the March 23 state election.
The TWU will throw its weight behind a global campaign aimed at disrupting Uber's anticipated public float next year by drawing attention to the company's regulatory battles and persistent concerns about the gig economy model.
As the mining union prepares to ramp-up its campaign for a "just transition" for workers whose future is disrupted by climate change, its leader has warned the Labor Party that to take power at the next election, it must win the Central Queensland seats that contain thousands of coal mining and power workers.
Citing more complex demands such as data harvesting, the IEU has in addition to its bid for an equal remuneration order on behalf of 15,000 early childhood teachers now lodged an alternative work value claim to increase salary levels by between 11% and 34%, or to implement a uniform 25% pay rise.
Five migrant fruit pickers at the centre of a $10 million Federal Court claim against a labour hire company and its owners are seeking to be recognised as casuals, alleging their contracts for piecework were invalid and based average take home pay on an unrealistic workload.
The union leading the campaign against prospective job losses at a major brewery is at risk of being sidelined after the FWC found it "reached the line between [unacceptably careless disregard] and. . . deliberate non-compliance" in failing to communicate restraining notices to members.
The ACTU's triennial Congress has endorsed a proposal for state and federal governments to enact industrial manslaughter laws, after maritime union leader Chris Cain told delegates that employers who recklessly kill workers should face $20 million fines and 20 years behind bars.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus has today mounted a spirited defence of solidarity among union members, saying that calling a strikebreaker a "scab" is "an accurate description", while the peak body's new president said she experienced the power of unions when as 14-year-old waitress, members helped her fight back against sexual harassment by a supervisor.
