National Union of Workers

We are a labour union based on the collective strength of tens of thousands of members standing in unity.

NUW members work for all sorts of employers, from multinational corporations to small businesses, in a diverse range ofindustries.

We are united by a set of common values and interests. These interests include fighting for a better standard of living for all our members and empowering our fellow members to have control over their working lives. We uphold the shared values of solidarity, equality, social justice, dignity and unity.

It is important that NUW members campaign and fight together no matter how we are employed, whether permanent, casual, part time, contract. We must stand together because EVERY WORKER COUNTS. Find out more about our campaign: Jobs you can count on!

New Campaign Campaigns

  • Support Striking Fenner Dunlop Workers!
    50 Fenner Dunlop workers have been on strike for seven days. Workers are fighting for a base wage that is a LIVING wage, so they don’t have to rely on sporadic overtime to survive. Their employer expects them to give up roster flexibility and other hard fought for conditions, just to get a decent pay rise. No one should have to work 60 hours a week just to make a living wage.
    557 of 600 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers
  • Chemist Warehouse: Respect Your Workers
    Chemist Warehouse relies on broken rules to keep workers in insecure work - about 70% of staff in distribution warehouses are labour hire casuals. Many workers who have years of experience with the company are made to rely on daily text messages, sometimes as late as 10pm, to confirm if they have a shift the following day. Being placed on unpaid standby for days or weeks on end is also common. Workers are afraid to speak out for fear of losing shifts. The workplace culture is toxic, with many of us facing bullying, intimidation and sexual harassment. Chemist Warehouse could provide us with decent, safe and secure jobs - but they have chosen not to. We've been bargaining with the company since 2018 but they have ignored our demands. That's why hundreds of workers across Victoria and Queensland are now taking industrial action against Chemist Warehouse. Show your support for striking workers by signing the petition.
    18,691 of 20,000 Signatures
    Created by Chemist Warehouse workers
  • Workers at Baxter Laboratories are getting burned!
    Baxter Laboratories in Boronia manufactures sun and skin care products for some of Australia’s best known brands such as Coles, the Cancer Council, Dermaveen and Lucas’ Paw Paw Ointment. Workers at Baxter Laboratories want a living wage. NUW members are fighting for a fair pay offer and better working conditions. After 4 months of protracted negotiations, members took protected industrial action and stopped work for 24 hours on 11th October. Like so many other hardworking Australians, workers at Baxter Laboratories are struggling to make ends meet because they are not paid a living wage. Meanwhile workers are being asked to work harder and faster. To add insult to injury, Baxter Laboratories is withholding back pay on the grounds that the first offer that was put out to a vote was not accepted. Workers should be entitled to vote down unfair pay offers without being penalised for it. Send Brent Baxter a message, that you buy sunscreen and you support workers being paid a living wage!
    237 of 300 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers
  • Australia wants Fair Food!
    Workers on farms across Australia are currently forced to work long hours, often 14 or 16 hours and even up to 22 hours a day. Many are paid cash payments; as low as $4 and commonly $12 or $14 an hour, while the minimum wage is $21.61. These workers pick and pack the fresh fruit and vegetables that we buy at the supermarket. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NjOjNAShnQ Many producers use dodgy labour hire contractors to try and cut costs. These labour hire contractors routinely steal workers wages, provide them with substandard accommodation for exorbitant fees, and seek sexual and monetary favours for visas or preferential treatment. Workers who speak up are ignored, silenced or have their employment terminated. All this is happening while the Big Supermarkets engage in 'price wars' during the ad breaks we watch on TV. As a duopoly, Coles and Woolworths have incredible buying power. Competition among producers to supply the supermarkets is immense. Coles and Woolworths exploit their market position to demand that producers supply products at lower and lower cost. Coles and Woolworths claim their Ethical Sourcing Code of Conduct ensures that fresh food products are ethically produced. The reality facing workers on these farms proves that this is not true. When producers are confronted with the choice between complying with codes or losing a supply contract with a Big Supermarket, they choose to cut corners. Even after extreme exploitation and slave-like conditions were exposed on Four Corners in May 2015, workers are still fighting for justice on many farms around Australia. Without workers being able to actively participate in their union and speak up about conditions on farms, codes of conduct will never work. Workers who produce our fresh food are putting out a call to clean up the supply chain, a call for a Fair Food Agreement to immediately outline standard conditions and rights that workers can collectively enact.
    6,612 of 7,000 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers Picture
  • Respect our reps! Reinstate Henare!
    A job you can count on is important to everyone in our community. Every worker should be treated with respect and be able to speak up for union rights and a fair deal. Henare, one of our delegates at Lite n' Easy, has been stood down from work and asked to leave immediately with no written reasons. This happened only 2 days after standing up for a fair pay rise. Members are hard-working, but would struggle to afford the products that the company make without a fair pay rise. As a company focused on family, and healthy living, Lite n' Easy management have put undue stress on Henare and his family. Members' rights to stand up for a fair deal should be respected, and it is unacceptable that workers are intimidated for working collectively. We work so we can plan a life for ourselves and our families, and make contributions to our communities. We all need a job we can count on to do this. Having worked at Lite n' Easy for 5 years, Henare's a valuable member of the team and active NUW Delegate. To restore faith in the pay negotiation process, it's important that Henare is immediately reinstated and that further targeting and attacks on staff for speaking up stop!
    606 of 800 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers Picture
  • It's nuts!: Select Harvests workers fight to protect their jobs.
    We work at Select Harvests, Australia’s largest nut processing company. We make products you’ve probably bought at the supermarket like Lucky’s nuts and Sunsol Muesli. Our co-workers, who are employed through a labour hire company, face an anxious and uncertain future. 
 In April this year, Select Harvests announced that they would be changing labour hire providers. Usually when companies change providers of casual labour, they get those workers who currently operate the plant to sign up with the new labour hire provider, to ensure continuity of employment and production. This year, Select Harvests told workers that they would have to reapply for their jobs, which they have done for years. Many employees have been told they were unsuccessful in applying for their own job. They are devastated. This decision means that many workers we have worked alongside for years might not be back on Monday, all because of a decision by the company to change labour hire providers. 
 We are fighting for our members at Select Harvests who have been affected by this decision. All workers deserve respect and consultation on matters that affect their lives and their families. 
 The clock is ticking for these workers at Select Harvests, with the possibility of joining a Centrelink queue as a result of a corporate administrative decision. It is not fair for our hard-working co-workers to be treated like this.
    43 of 100 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers
  • Coles and Woolworths must end labour exploitation on their farms
    The majority of Australians do their grocery shopping at Coles or Woolworths. Yet the farm workers who feed us, who pick and pack the fruit and vegetables we all eat, are enduring wage theft and exploitation on Australian farms. Two thirds of surveyed workers reported earning below minimum wage, sometimes as low as $4.80 per hour. Cash contractors act as controlling mediators between farms and workers, often resulting in stolen wages, no superannuation, sexual harassment, bullying and harassment. Coles and Woolworths must not continue to profit from this exploitation. Add your voice to stand with farm workers today!
    272 of 300 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers Picture
  • Stop ripping off charity fundraisers!
    Most charities contract with private companies to raise funds over the phone or face to face in the streets. Oftentimes, these private companies engage workers as sham contractors as a way of avoiding the legal responsibilities they owe to their employees. This means fundraising workers can end up working full-time hours while taking home nothing or next to nothing in pay at the end of a week. This isn’t fair. The charities who engage these private fundraising companies have the power to fix this problem. They have the power to fix up their contracting chain and make sure their fundraising workers are paid legally.
    814 of 1,000 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers
  • Stop stealing money from Working Holiday Makers!
    We are Eden and Ula. We came to Australia on Working Holiday Visas. We wanted to travel this beautiful country, have new experiences, make new friends and work along the way to help pay for our trip. We loved Australia so much that we wanted to stay for a second year and saw a regional job going at a zucchini farm in Bowen, Queensland through a labour hire contractor called AZIT. We had to fill out many forms and there were lots of conditions for us to be employed as casual labourers. We also had to pay the contractor $800 each before we could start work. The work never came. The contractor gave excuses about the weather. When we decided to look elsewhere for work, we asked for our money back. The contractor refused and told us we could take him to Fair Work. Now, with the help of our union the NUW, we are campaigning to get our money back and put an end to dodgy labour hire contractors ripping off workers. AZIT exploited the fact that we didn't have a good understanding of workplace rights in Australia and now has stolen hundreds of dollars. How many others have they stolen money from? We are taking a stand for all workers who are exploited in Australia. Workers should join the union and the campaign to stop the rip offs, wage theft and exploitation.
    618 of 800 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers Picture
  • Support Zerella workers
    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.
    650 of 800 Signatures
    Created by National Union of Workers Picture
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