TWU Vic/Tas branch secretary Wayne Mader has told the Heydon Royal Commission today that officials from his branch made donations to candidates in HSU and ETU elections out of their own re-election fund.
Overall union membership might have fallen to as low as 10% if density had not stabilised across Australia's service and public sectors, new research has shown.
The Fair Work Commission has granted right of entry permits to a union branch secretary who initially failed to disclose that his previous one had been suspended for three months after an altercation with a union member, and to an organiser who visited 90 sites after his last permit expired.
The NSW Supreme Court has refused for now to issue jailed former HSU NSW leader Michael Williamson a certificate protecting him from self-incrimination in the union's proceedings against the branch's former assistant secretary, Peter Mylan.
In what the ACTU has dubbed a political witch hunt, the federal Attorney-General's department is questioning government agencies over their dealings with unions over the last ten years.
The ACTU has produced a “bargaining toolkit” to help unions to pursue claims to offset Federal Budget measures, including the $7 GP co-payment, a freeze on child care rebates and the re-indexation of fuel excise.
Evidence to be presented to the Heydon Royal Commission by former CFMEU construction and general division NSW branch official Brian Fitzpatrick "reveals a troubling state of lawlessness" in the branch and the union that manifests in their preparedness to go to "war" against companies that incur their displeasure, according to its counsel assisting.