The ACTU is looking to kickstart the union movement's federal election campaign by staging fourteen "Change the Rules" rallies across the nation today.
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.
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.
In a desperate and highly unusual attempt to have the FWC arbitrate a long-running bargaining dispute, the IEU has unsuccessfully applied to terminate its own industrial action on the basis it poses a danger to student welfare.
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.
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.
Global resources giant Rio Tinto, after its recent rapprochement with unions, is "the largest and most comprehensive example" of why it makes sense to bargain with employees' representatives, according to mining union leader Tony Maher.
Unions will next week consider pushing for stronger remedies for unfair dismissal by adopting measures such as removing the $73,000 compensation limit, enabling employees to pursue more than their lost income and empowering them to seek penalties against employers.
Protected action should be available to workers without the need for a secret ballot, according to the draft IR policy to be put to the ACTU's triennial Congress next week.
The ACTU will today release a jobs policy that calls for an end to public sector wage caps and pay freezes, along with calling time on the use of "illegitimate" fixed-term contracts in government jobs.
