I am an early childhood educator. Every day I help shape the future chances and choices of every child I educate. But today, on International Women’s Day, my colleagues and I did something quite different — and a little scary: we chained ourselves to Malcolm Turnbull's office. Why? I was born in 1968. One year later, a brave woman called Zelda D’Aprano shocked the nation by chaining herself to Melbourne’s Commonwealth Building to protest against women being paid substantially less than men. That was almost 50 years ago, yet my colleagues and I are paid one third less than those educating children just a few years older – for one reason: 94 per cent of us are female. I have been waiting my whole life to have my work valued the same as a man. Educators are fed up. We won’t die waiting for equal pay. We want Malcolm Turnbull to fix this. Please stand with us and tell him it’s time to value our work by funding wages that befits our essential and invaluable profession. https://youtu.be/yzVcR4nSWXY

Trove is a phenomenal resource for anyone looking for information in Australia. It is a free and democratic portal to content from all of Australia's public libraries and archives as well as universities. Trove provides a gateway to old newspapers, video clips, archived records, sound and pictures. It is the digital age dividend for all our prior investment in information management. Read more: http://theconversation.com/treasure-trove-why-defunding-trove-leaves-australia-poorer-55217 Mr Turnbull, we need Trove and we need our public libraries.

Workers at Zerella work hard in tough conditions to produce the 250 tons of carrots plus other vegetables that go straight to Woolworths every week. Workers joined the union after finally getting rid of labour hire contractors that were paying them less than the minimum wage. Now Zerella workers want to negotiate a union workplace agreement, and have signed up to say so. Workers are taking their legal right to join a union and collectively bargain for a workplace agreement. People around Australia, many who shop at Woolworths every week, will not stand for intimidation. People around Australia will stand for human rights and decent workplaces.

Bullying is a real issue that can seriously hurt young people. A majority of young LGBTI people report bullying and 80 per cent of those say that it happens at school. All young people should be able to feel safe and supported at school, and this program is helping to do this. Despite scare campaigns around the program, schools make decisions about their level of involvement with Safe Schools, how much of the program they use and what is appropriate for particular age groups. Schools need to have the freedom to run these kinds of programs if they believe it is necessary to help create a safe environment within the school for all students.

We need your voice to tell all levels of government that meatworker jobs are disappearing in north Queensland because of increasing live cattle exports. Record numbers of cattle are heading overseas for processing, while Aussie meatworkers look for work. Sign this petition so Prime Minister Turnbull understands the importance of positive action to save decent and vital jobs in regional Australia.

Mater has made it clear that many of the current employment conditions aligned with those nurses and midwives from Queensland Health will be removed or reduced. Examples include removal of Nurse/Midwifery Unit Managers from the classification/generic level statements, restrictions around the payment of continuing Professional Development allowance, pro-rata access to Long Service Leave after 7 years and reduction of payment for working on public holidays. The proposed rate of pay for work performed on public holidays is below the Nurses Award 2010 and Nurses and Midwives (Queensland Health) Certified Agreement (EB8). As an organisation that is funded by the State in a way that is consistent with the funding of public sector health services for the delivery of health services to Queenslanders, it is our view that Mater should preserve working conditions aligned with those of Queensland Health. Mater nurses and midwives have not received a wage increase for almost 2 years and the organisation has refused QNU’s request to pass on a pay increase by way of an administrative increase while the negotiations are finalised. Furthermore, the organisation has threatened its nurses and midwives that if the agreement is rejected by them at ballot, the Mater will remove the back payment offer from the table. As the Mater continues to receive funding from Queensland tax payers for the delivery of public health services, the organisation should be held accountable to pass on those taxpayer funds to the nurses and midwives providing the care.

Queensland Unions stands in solidarity with the doctors, nurses and health care professionals of Lady Cilento Children's Hospital who are refusing to release Baby Asha without a safe environment for her to return "home" to. Nauru, and Manus, are not safe places. The Australian union movement says ... #LetThemStay

Support a #justtransition for the Latrobe Valley The Latrobe Valley community has powered Victoria for almost 100 years, and deserves to be supported through the inevitable transition of our energy system. This means new employment opportunities as the inevitable closure of Hazelwood Power Station looms closer. Help avert a manufacturing crisis #supportmanufacturing At the same time, Victoria is facing a manufacturing jobs crisis, especially as the car industry closes over the next two years. Make sure no-one is left behind in the #energytransition It should not just be the rich who are able to benefit from energy efficiency and clean energy technology. #equality. Households who can benefit the most from lower energy bills should be supported to access these options. Reduce greenhouse gas emissions #climatechange The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transform our economy so that it is sustainable is growing more pressing every day. The State Government’s own operations make a significant contribution to carbon pollution, and the government can lead by example in reducing emissions from its own buildings. This would also have a long-term benefit for tenants of public housing, whose energy bills would be reduced, giving a tangible boost to their disposable income. Encourage the cooperative economy and more secure work #securework Earthworker is a community initiative established by unionists and environmental activists to help Victorians work their way out of the climate crisis. It is committed to providing decent, secure work in factories owned by workers to manufacture the renewable energy technologies that we so badly need to transform our future. More information can be found at: http://earthworkercooperative.com.au/ In the UK, the Labour Party is pushing for the right for workers to buy out enterprises, and States in the US are legislating to support worker co-ops. The worker cooperative model can be the basis of new jobs and a just transition in places like the Latrobe Valley and Geelong, where old energy-intensive industries are under threat. Earthworker already has all the required factory machinery in a factory site in Morwell, Latrobe Valley. The project has the intellectual property, experience and skills in manufacturing and installing solar hot water systems across Australia, and is in the process of setting up the Morwell factory. With a sizable order of solar hot water systems for public housing, this first cooperative factory could be up and running quickly, with this kick-start, building itself into a long-term and community-sustaining cooperative business – the first of many across Australia. The Victorian government’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring local content in Government Projects, and growing employment opportunities in renewable technologies can be achieved in partnerships with organisations like Earthworker

After three masked men stormed the store with a knife and a hammer, stealing cash and cigarettes, the employee was made to finish his 8 hour shift. He received no compensation for his two weeks recovering from the ordeal and when he tried to return to work, was told he no longer had a job. 7/11 have show once again that they are in contention for Australia's most disgusting employer. Video from Channel 7 here: https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/30646183/store-worker-held-up-during-armed-robbery-fired/#page1

The article in Fairfax was shocking. Kmart and Target should know better than to source their products from factories where workers are exploited. Many workers in these factories are paid less in a week than Australians earn an hour. These big companies make massive profits and need to know that Australians won't accept these dodgy practices. It's these sort of dodgy practices that meant over 1,000 workers died when a clothing factory called Rana Plaza collapsed in Bangladesh. For more information check out the article in Fairfax: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/target-and-kmart-sell-2-school-uniforms-but-at-what-cost-20160112-gm4n1y.html

The Baird Government has been turning a blind eye to the massive rise of violence in our hospitals and its time we took a stand. Every day front line medical and emergency workers including nurses, orderlies, doctors, paramedics and other hospital staff are being harmed on the job and security officers have very few powers to stop it. Hospitals are places you go to get better but all too often we are seeing casualties coming from our casualty wards. This is not good enough. No one should have to go to work and be confronted by violence. We are calling on the Health Minister Jillian Skinner to review hospital security as a matter of urgency and give security officers the legal authority to protect the public, the patients and the staff at your local hospital.

My name is Diwakar. I clean offices in the city. I’m grateful for the work – but when my colleague was promised $15/hour, then sacked and never paid at all for the work, it broke me. This exploitation and bullying of us cleaners is rife. Some of it is downright awful: being underpaid like workers at 7-Eleven, or no pay at all for back-breaking hours, no annual leave. Sometimes companies hide records of us even working for them to protect themselves. But what makes it even worse – right now people fear being deported just for saying anything about the exploitation, bullying and abuse we're suffering. So we're forced into silence, and those breaking the law keep getting away with it. That's why I'm pleading with the new Ministerial Working Group to help protect vulnerable foreign workers to grant amnesty to workers who speak out about abuse and exploitation. Please help by signing my petition. It's terrifying to speak out, so I really need your help.