SDA Organiser Aleks Velanovski has been raising safety issues at Bunnings Footscray West throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. When Aleks raised the issue of customers coming into the store after being tested for COVID-19, he was told that the testing site could not be moved because Bunnings wanted it to stay. Test recipients continue to come into the store after they are tested. This incredibly dangerous behaviour puts workers’ safety at risk. It has become clear that the only solution to this problem is the complete removal of the COVID-19 testing site.

For years now, members of the Morrison Government have been campaigning against industry super and using the cover of Coronavirus, they are planning to take a sledgehammer to workers’ retirement savings. More than two million Australians were forced to raid their superannuation just to get by throughout the crisis, and hundreds of thousands of Australians are now out of work. Workers now have less time to save more for retirement and a Government intent on kicking the ladder out from underneath them. Australian unions won superannuation for it to be the best retirement income system in the world. We need to protect these hard won gains and strengthen our superannuation system to match the modern economy.

The Union has started a petition to demonstrate that staff are concerned with the proposed changes. Please sign the petition below to help stop pay cycle changes.

Over the past decade, our national cultural institutions have been starved of funding. With government funding being reduced every year because of the efficiency dividend combined with rising utility and maintenance costs; The Gallery has been left with no choice but to cut staff. Recently announcing they would have to cut 12% of their staff in 2020 – that will result in thirty workers losing their job. Understaffing was already a significant issue after a 10% staffing cut in 2016. These funding cuts have also greatly impacted The Gallery’s ability to collect and record Australia’s cultural heritage and have resulted in reduced services and access for the Australian community. Please sign our petition calling on the Government to protect our National Gallery and stop further job cuts. For a long time, both sides of politics have gouged money from the Gallery, and our other cultural institutions, ignoring the devastating impacts. This is devastating for workers who do their best to deliver exciting exhibitions and tell the stories of our nation. Our beloved Gallery, and all our national cultural institutions, need to be protected.

The Social and Community Services sector is growing and will be vital to supporting vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community in the COVID recovery and as we enter a recession. The sector relies on a pipeline of Social Work and related degree graduates to fill critical roles in its workforce. The workforce is predominantly a female workforce and low-paid. Already, there are workforce shortages in this essential sector. The Government’s proposed fee increases in Social Work and related fields will only further exacerbate these workforce shortages – in both recruitment and retention – that exist in this critical sector. It will disproportionately impact women who work in this sector, creating barriers for both entry and career advancement. The Government’s proposed fee increases for these degrees also overlooks recent State and Commonwealth Government initiatives or inquiries that have set or recommended minimum degree standards for employment in the social assistance sector.

Universities have become more and more like corporations than education institutes because of consistent ideological attacks on education under liberal governments. Due to that, there has been an over reliance on international students funding the tertiary education sector. With the COVID19 Crisis shutting down borders, universities are in a significantly difficult place when it comes to running them. The Tertiary education sector is the third largest sector in the country, however we are on the verge of losing hundreds of jobs, just before a major recession, unless the government commits supporting these institutions. We are calling on all of the Liberal/National government, as well as ministers Dan Tehan and Josh Frydenberg to commit to supporting this sector, and supporting Australian Jobs.

Most paid parking schemes have a free period of 2-3 hours, and then charge for every hour thereafter. This means that almost no customers pay for parking, but staff have to pay for every shift they work. Full-time workers in shopping centres will have to pay hundreds of dollars per month if these shopping centres start charging for parking. Sign the SDA’s petition to #KeepItFree!

Australian's deserve the right to work a useful job at decent pay and conditions. The Jobkeeper program is a failure. Millions of Australians are missing out. A further 1.6 million Jobseeker recipients are being forced into the broken and punitive employment services system. And on September 24, all Jobseeker and Job keeper recipients - at least 5 million people - will be thrown into poverty when Jobkeeper and the Job seeker coronavirus supplement expire. The obvious to solution is to offer everyone useful work at decent pay and conditions. There is plenty of work to do. We have unmet needs across almost every community in this country. Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) clearly shows that there is no economic barrier preventing the Morrison government implementing a job guarantee. Its a political choice. Sign this petition and join our campaign demanding that the Morrison government introduce federal job guarantee. For more information see below links. Alan Kohler, 'Government should guarantee jobs as the employer of last resort', The Australian: https://unemployedworkersunion.com/government-should-guarantee-jobs-as-the-employer-of-last-resort/ Alan Kohler Interview with MMT expert Professor Stephanie Kelton: https://www.eurekareport.com.au/investment-news/why-government-deficits-dont-matter/147633?fbclid=IwAR18B1qCfeAKr56bYnt61LcIPBwzDxc1V-C9DKhcmrYbzaBRGj4AabWywPE Alan Kohler Interview with MMT expert Professor Bill Mitchell: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=44603

This crisis isn’t over. Far from it. The JobKeeper end date is fast approaching and working people are facing the prospect of the economic trapdoor opening up underneath them as more companies and organisations start to announce job losses in anticipation of JobKeeper being switched off in September. JobKeeper needs to be extended and expanded to cover workers in higher education, early childhood education, the arts, aviation, casuals who might have less than 12 months service, visa workers who were invited here and are now trapped. By signing our petition, you can let the government know that if we are all in this together as they claim, it needs to provide JobKeeper to all those that need. The old JobSeeker rate was a poverty trap and Australian’s have always deserved more than $40 a day. It was never enough to live and there can be no going back to that kind of starvation payment. With nearly 1 million people unemployed, but the reality that there is almost an additional 700,000 who’ve given up looking for work because there are no jobs, ordinary Australians are dealing with both economic hardship and a loss of faith in the future. JobSeeker should be permanently lifted because it provides people with a chance to pay their bills, put food on the table and not struggle trapped in poverty. We need to give all Australian a sense of hope and security. Without extending these supports millions of Australians will suffer as the economy falls over the September cliff, jobs are destroyed and incomes are thrown back to poverty levels. You can do your bit by signing this petition and demanding that Scott Morrison leaves no worker to navigate this crisis alone.

We have created a petition seeking to hold RMIT and its management to account for failing to fully engage in an open and transparent way with NTEU members on the current state of and future of RMIT. • We know that RMIT has to change the structures of the University • We know that RMIT is facing a significant loss of income over the next two years • We know RMIT management has opened consultation on volunteering for a redundancy • We know that RMIT is not renewing people’s fixed term contracts • We know RMIT has not reengaged people who were employed as casuals • We know people’s workloads are oppressive. It is our commitment to each other that will see RMIT through this current crisis. We need to be included in discussions for the future of RMIT.

The ABC provides crucial bushfire alerts, community events, weather reports, sports news and local news in urban and rural areas across the country. The ABC has been a lifeline of information and education for Australians throughout the bushfire crisis, coronavirus pandemic and more. And cutting the ABC Life program will stop our national broadcaster from telling important, diverse stories. The proposed cuts of Radio National flagship 7.45am news will reduce public scrutiny of government of the day. Paul Fletcher, Scott Morrison and the Liberals must stop attempting to undermine the ABC and the role it plays in independently holding the government and corporations to account. To stop these cuts will take a huge amount of public pressure. Please sign and share this petition to let Paul Fletcher know Australians love our ABC!

The standards under the JDA are putting mental and physical strain on workers. Workers are being held to impossible standards, they are pressured to perform at a rate that comprimises worker safety. The pick rate reports are irregular, we have members saying they have worked to the same standard and the report shows rates of 100% one day, 60% the next. We have heard reports of managers telling workers to consistently pick at 110% and "it will be okay". This is not good enough.