The ACTU has fired the first shot in the royal commission into union corruption, finance and governance by telling the inquiry chief Dyson Heydon that it wants a ban on selective leaking of evidence to the media before hearings.
Former HSU East secretary Michael Williamson will spend a minimum of five years behind bars after being sentenced today for defrauding the union of nearly $1 million.
MUA WA branch assistant secretary Will Tracey has lost his challenge to the Fair Work Commission's decision last year to refuse him a federal entry permit because he didn't meet the "fit and proper person" test.
One of the largest left-wing unions, United Voice, faces a major shake-up after national secretary Louise Tarrant and national president Michael Crosby flagged they won't stand for re-election later this year.
A firebrand ex-leader of the meatworkers' union, Wally Curran, has died in Melbourne, rekindling memories of his famous falling out with former ACTU president and future Labor prime minister, Bob Hawke.
FWBC head Nigel Hadgkiss has called for agreement clauses allowing industry-wide RDOs, weekend shutdowns and restrictions on subcontractors and labour hire to be "consigned to the past where they belong".
ACTU secretary Dave Oliver will lead a union delegation to Canberra tomorrow to step up political lobbying over the Abbott government's legislation to change the Qantas Sale Act.
Former HSU national secretary Craig Thomson will be sentenced next Tuesday, after Lesley Taylor SC, for the prosecution, today told Magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg that anything less than an immediate custodial sentence would be "manifestly inadequate".