Successful Campaigns

For the next three months, NSW School Cleaners have won: Guaranteed, regular cleaning shifts Enhanced cleaning hours at each school at 25% of the usual hours, paid at double time

Awesome news - I've been reinstated! I will be back at work at Myer on Monday! I'm so happy. This was more than just about fighting to get my job back. I was fighting for everyone’s right to speak out when employers do the wrong thing, like putting us on dodgy ABNs and underpaying us. I really hope cleaners and other people will now have the courage to stand up and speak out too. I'm so grateful for the support I've received from people across Australia. Almost 4000 people signed my petition to Myer – and so many people tweeted and commented, saying #ReinstateRaf! This is a victory for all of us! This is the power we have when we stand together in a union and speak out. We can win fairness and good, secure jobs - and make our voices heard. So, if you’re not a union member I really urge you to join now. Thank you Rafael Colobon Myer cleaner Proud United Voice member

ETU and AMWU have announced that they have reached agreement to immediately end the dispute with the maintenance workforce at the Abbotsford brewery in Melbourne, Victoria. As part of the agreement, all picketing workers have been invited to return to work at their previous positions at the Abbotsford brewery on fair and decent union terms and conditions, which provide job security to the workers. All parties agreed to productivity and efficiency improvements that will be implemented at the brewery. CUB and the Unions have mapped out a better approach based on mutual respect, productivity and a shared passion to make the best beers with the best skilled workers. The ETU and AMWU have called for an immediate end of the ongoing boycott and are encouraging their supporters to return to drinking the full range of CUB beers and ciders. All parties are pleased to resolve this dispute and to refocus their attention on working together to brew the best beers in Victoria.

On Friday we received some really great news: we saved Peppertree! Now we need pledges of help to make sure our community run, volunteer powered Peppertree can thrive: https://goo.gl/wMRKYg

Woolworths Wyong members have voted to return to work on Thursday 6 August after the company made the following offer: - All level 1's and 3's will receive a 11.2% increase over 3 years, which is almost double what was offered before the strike - All level 2's who have had 6 years service with the company will be made level 3's, meaning their pay will increase by 17.4% over 3 years, which is almost double what was offered before the strike - An 80:20 ratio will apply of permanents to casuals (including agency casuals) - the best one in the Woolworths supply chain, with nothing offered before strike - Both Woolworths and agency casuals have the right to convert after 12 months' service, with a fairer, transparent conversion process that favours tenure above other factors. - Site rates of pay for agency casuals to be put in MOU - Redundancy cap doubled in the event of site closure - from 40 weeks to 82 weeks - Union rights and recognition including paid union meetings - Family and domestic violence leave - 5 paid and 5 unpaid - Natural disaster leave of 2 days paid after devastating NSW bushfires earlier this year We are proud of our members for taking the fight to one of the biggest companies in this country and inspiring all workers to not just have to accept whatever scraps are tossed their way in this pandemic, but instead stand up, unite and fight for good wages and conditions, decent jobs and a more equal society.

The Agreement containing wages and conditions for teachers and support staff in Tasmanian Catholic Education expired last September. Following detailed member consultation the Independent Education Union sought to commence negotiations with the Tasmanian Catholic Education Office for our next Agreement in November 2021. Since then? Very little has happened. After months of delay the TCEO agreed to meet ONCE per month, ONLINE, for a maximum of TWO HOURS. When we offered to fly Melbourne-based members of our bargaining team to meet for detailed in-person negotiations, the TCEO refused on the grounds of COVID-safety, while their own employees in schools across the state continued to turn up in person to their high-contact workplaces every day. Meanwhile, the TCEO has outright rejected almost every claim made by the IEU, while seeking to reduce existing protections around hours of work. This is not good enough. It’s time to get serious. FIND OUT MORE: www.ieuvictas.org.au/tasmanian-catholic-education-bargaining-campaign

Bridget McKenzie resigned.

NSW workers won support payments to get tested for COVID-19 and isolate. Congratulations to everyone who took action!

The call from students organising the strike states: “Last year’s UN intergovernmental panel on climate change’s special report on global warming was clear about the unprecedented dangers of going beyond 1.5C of global heating. Emissions must drop rapidly – so that by the time we are in our mid- and late-20s we are living in a completely transformed world. But to change everything, we need everyone.” Already the NTEU, the GSA and UMSU who represent staff and students at the University of Melbourne, have endorsed this call to action. We will work together to ensure the widest possible stoppage of work and study so that staff and students can attend demonstrations on this historic day. The University of Melbourne has an opportunity to be a global leader on climate action – an opportunity that staff and students want the University to take. Climate change and climate action is a top concern within our university community for students and staff. As students and workers in the higher education sector, we have a particular responsibility and opportunity to campaign on climate action. Universities will play a leading role in the research and development and retraining that will be needed for the transition. Our fight against casualisation and the marketisation and commodification of education is inseparable from supporting our fellow workers and unionists in energy, transportation, and agricultural industries to decarbonise the economy and create dignified clean energy jobs. Transforming our destructive relationship with the environment requires a system change at all social, economic and political levels. To that end we stand with Indigenous people in struggles to protect their lands and waters from impending expansion of fossil fuel projects. We stand with workers in fossil fuel industries and their communities facing insecure work and an uncertain future. We stand against the vested corporate and political interests placing profits above the future of the planet. Students and staff call for the University of Melbourne to be bold on climate action and agree to stop work and class for all members of the university community to join the global climate strike on September 20th. There is no education on a dead planet.

Grades received in the second and third years of an Undergraduate degree are normally given double weighting meaning that students currently completing third year subjects are denied the opportunity make improvements to their WAM. Honours degrees must be completed by Semester One to be included in WAM calculations when applying for Medicine, while an ongoing Honours degree counted towards Optometry or Dentistry. As a result of the changes to WAM calculation, Honours at any stage of completion will not be included, for any of the three degrees. Additionally, changes to Honours projects mean that they do not attract sufficient credit points to be included in the University’s broader approach to WAM. Overall, these changes are manifestly unfair and disadvantage students who are able to improve their competitiveness for MDHS applications this month. The University made this decision in the absence of student representatives and has not provided a rationale for how this change benefits students, or why this decision was necessary. It is astonishing that the University of Melbourne has decided to adopt this model given that the same outcomes could have been achieved for students whose results have suffered this semester, by applying the WAM changes announced only a short time ago. Other Australian medical schools have allowed students to receive the benefits of good results in 2020, or have changed their approach since this announcement was made. We call on the University of Melbourne to rescind its decision to ensure WAMs that improve in 2020 can be used.