It’s been over 4 weeks now since the 54 years since the Wave Hill Walk-Off tragic explosion in Beirut that killed This week was the 54th anniversary of the hundreds and wounded and displaced thou- Wave Hill walk-off. On the August 23, 1966, sands more. The blast was a result of Vincent Lingiari led 200 Indigenous stock- government negligence and rampant safety men and their families to walk off Wave Hill violations. Could something similar Cattle Station in the Northern Territory, happen here in Australia? And what is protesting their work and pay conditions, and fighting for housing, water and ser- ‘lockdown fatigue’, the vague catchall vices. What started out as a strike for pay being used to describe the restlessness and conditions grew into a fight for the of workers in this intense period of return of land and the right to control it. uncertainty? Read on for more. See our article on this in Issue 7. RAFFWU and Woolworths [email protected] RAFFWU represented Woolworths members in their campaign to secure July wage increases. WORKERS IN STRUGGLE WORKERS Woolworths tried to change the agreement to avoid paying the wage increase until February. Now Woolworths Group has pulled their case and agreed to backpay the stolen wages. A $35 million win for members. UWU and Officeworks Officeworks Warehouse members across NSW and Victoria stopped work for 24 hours on Monday August 24 in their fight to win job security and a fair wage increase. Officeworks has seen up to 28% increase in sales during COVID-19, but is offering a less than inflation wage offer of 2% without looking at any of the clauses to improve job security for workers. TWU and Qantas The TWU called for the head of Qantas Alan Joyce to resign after a further 2,500 ground staff jobs were put on notice. Qantas announced on Tuesday that along with Jetstar it was reviewing whether to outsource its ground handling operations at the 10 Australian airports where this work is done in-house. The decision would outsource cleaning and transport services to a company with a reputation of wage theft and slashing workers’ conditions. The TWU questioned the federal Government’s bail out of Michael Fikaris | @fikarisart the company saying that the original sacking of Workers Solidarity acknowledges that our activities take place on Aboriginal Land. We acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded. 1 6,000 jobs despite a $500 million government cor- and can’t ask them to work for less than two porate subsidy and JobKeeper payments and the new hours on a day they are called to work. round of job cuts is a sell-out of loyal workers who had in some cases worked for the company for Labor warned the government they shouldn’t be decades. The union is calling for the sacking of extending the emergency industrial relations the CEO and for the government to take an equity powers to businesses that had fully recovered. share in the company. USA MEAA and the Media Support Fund After video of a cop shooting Jacob Blake in the MEAA has called for greater oversight of the back at close range in front of his children was Federal Government’s regional media support fund. circulated, the WNBA Washington Mystics stepped OF BACKBONE Last week Southern Cross Austereo, a recipient onto the court wearing handmade shirts that read of $10 million under the government’s $50 mil- ‘Jacob Blake’ with 7 bloody bullet holes in the OUR MOVEMENT lion package, announced 38 jobs would be lost. back just before the league postponed their games Another recipient, Australian Community Media, that night. Shortly after, key players in the has shut down or closed multiple mastheads with NBA signaled they would not play their sched- the loss of an undetermined number of jobs. uled game and could possibly sit out the rest of Dani the season in the first strike of its kind in RTBU, Women’s Advocate Border Watch Newsgroup announced on Facebook that the sports world. they had decided to shut operations. Their deci- How long have you been a union member? sion to close The Border Watch (Mount Gambier), After two days the strike was ended with the South Eastern Times (Millicent) and The Pennant promise of a social justice coalition comprised Three years. (Penola) will cost the jobs of 38 staff. of players and lawmakers. While it lasted, the strike sent shockwaves and fear through the Why did you join the union? MEAA said “It seems that the government pack- sports ownership and follows a building pattern age is supporting shareholders and boardrooms of protests led by black athletes. I honestly didn’t know much about unions before I rather than the working journalists… The gov- started in public transport. I joined initially ernment needs to reset its priorities to better August 14th marked four years since quarterback because I knew that it would mean that I would serve audiences and the taxpayer.” Colin Kapernick first took a knee during the have support if I needed it. national anthem in protest of police brutality. MUA and WA Government What’s your best memory/story about being in the union movement? The MUA is calling on the WA Government to withdraw plans to build a new port and close I went to my first RTBUWomen meeting in October Fremantle. The union went to the streets this 2018, and it lit a fire in my belly. Participating week supported by other unions including the in the Anna Stewart Memorial Project has definitely CFMEU, TWU, ETU, AWU in a call for the Fremantle been a highlight. The opportunity to see the inner Port to remain a working port. workings of my union and others was educational and empowering. I definitely recommend it for United Services Union and the AFL women keen to be more involved in their union and networking with the union sisterhood. The United Services Union has lodged a formal dispute against the AFL accusing the league of Our union’s very public protected actions during imposing a major restructure and job cuts with- our EBA negotiations were also quite the talking out consultation after AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan point in the last year. I love the energy of a announced hundreds of jobs to go by November vocal rally in the loading bay at Trades Hall! with up to half of all jobs impacted in some way. The union document to the Fair Work Commission What’s the most important issue facing the alleges the AFL changed its redundancy policy in union movement today? March without notifying workers, disadvantaging long serving staff. The union also criticised The increasing restrictions on union activities. the AFL for seeking job cuts saying there is no The more our rights to organise and rally are justification for axing jobs in a matter of weeks limited, the more our rights as workers will be when the AFL remains eligible for JobKeeper well eroded. into next year. On top of that, the current pandemic has really Jobkeeper shone a light on the additional unpaid workload of women workers and the hidden gender pay gap The government’s JobKeeper 2.0 bill extends created by insecure work. By strengthening the employer powers to reduce hours and adjust rights and conditions of our most vulnerable workers’ duties and location of work, both for workers, we strengthen our union movement as businesses still claiming wage subsidies and for a whole. “legacy employers” no longer on the payment but still suffering a 10% decline in revenue. Why should people join their union? In the bill, legacy employers cannot reduce a Because we are stronger in numbers, workers sup- worker’s hours below 60% of their ordinary hours, porting workers. must give workers seven days’ notice of changes [email protected] | 4 September 2020 | www.workerssolidarity.org.au Workers Solidarity acknowledges that our activities take place on Aboriginal Land. 2 We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded. 3 It is clear that the store of ammonium nitrate Campbellfield. WorkSafe also charged his com- alert members of the public using the parks. was a ticking time bomb – whether its contin- pany, Bradbury Industrial Services, with multiple So yes, a similar thing could, and has happened ued storage in such a built-up area was due to breaches of the OHS and Dangerous Goods Act. The in Melbourne – and no doubt our other capital ineptitude, red tape, apathy, corruption or greed company is now in liquidation. cities. The same issues arise: companies breaking - or possibly a combination of all of these - may the law, regulators failing to regulate and then never be known. In the hours after the fire began, authorities scrambling to clean up and minimise the fallout Explosion in issued a “community advice warning” for eleven – both literal and political. But could such a calamity happen in Australia? suburbs in Melbourne’s west, with residents being Lebanon – could it warned to close windows and doors. Residents These companies should have the book thrown at Because of our size and space, and lower pop- were still reporting health issues three weeks them, and their owners be imprisoned. Too often happen here? ulation density it’s unlikely that a similar after the fire. Firefighters were also concerned the outcome has been companies going into liq- explosion would lead to such devastation. But about the long-term effects of exposure to toxic uidation and never paying a cent, and owners we have had several very serious toxic fires due chemicals.