Stick Together

Two reports today. The first takes us to Altona North in Melbourne to a community picket supporting food workers at one of the largest bakery companies operating in Australia who began stop work action on May 14 for a 15% wage increases over three years.Our second story takes us back to the historic 1998 Waterfront dispute with Patrick's with some mind blowing facts about the extent Government and Employers will go to to crush worker rights at work.  

This week's episode of Stick Together brings you stories from the frontline with union news followed by a talk from the Marxism conference on the 1917 General Strike in Australia. 

Today we are exploring the issue of a 4-day work week with some experiences from Unions in the UK.

On today's program we wrap up May Day Events around the world and of course, right here in Australia. Happy May Day Comrades! May the struggle continue

On 24 April 2013 the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Dhaka Bangladesh collapsed. The owners of a number of garment factories in the building had ignored the most basic safety regulations, and forced workers to keep working when it was clear the walls were cracking. In Bangladesh, workers are paid monthly, at the end of the month. The collapse happened on the 24th, and workers were threatened with non payment of wages, if they didn't enter the clearly unstable building. The confirmed death toll was 1,130. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued.Rana Plaza shows how little the fashion brands care about the lives of the workers that produce the clothes that make them insane profits. Guests today are Rupali Akter and Taslima Akter. Rupali is a survivor of the Rana Plazar collapse. She was in the building on the day, and she was buried under the rubble for 17 hours before being rescued. Taslima Akter is a photo journalist and activist. She was onsite in the immediate aftermath, documenting and bearing witness to the horror. Taslima is the Secretary and Rupali is the President of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity. Taslima is interpreting for Rupali in this interview.This interview was conducted in 2023, during an international solidarity visit to Melbourne to commemorate 10 years since the collapse. Today, 12 years later, not much has changed other than garment workers were instrumental in the self-imposed exile of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.

When Chris Breen and his wife lost their baby Priya when she was just six weeks old, they needed time to grieve.But while Chris was still able to take his planned three months of parental leave, his wife, who goes by the name Priya's mum, was forced back to work.That's because her planned paid maternity leave was cancelled by her employer. The two embarked on an important but very emotional campaign to ensure that paid parental leave cannot be cancelled in the event of still birth or infant mortality. I had the privilege of speaking with both of them, and here's their story and campaign.Sign the petition here

This episode with host James Brennan brings you union news and an interview with Alexis Vassiley author of the new book Striking ore 'The Rise and fall of union power in the Pilbara'. Striking ore focuses on the workers themselves including their agitating for hard won breakthroughs in pay, conditions and safety. 

After a 74-hour strike by 1,000 workers, the Nexperia Philippines Workers' Union secured the reinstatement of union leaders Mary Ann Castillo (president) and Girlie Battad (union official), along with a PHP50 (US$0.87) wage increase over three years. My guest today is Rochelle Porras from Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research in the Philippines.

The Wills electorate is currently held by Labor MP Peter Kahlil who has been the elected representative since 2016. This show is not to endorse any candidates for the election but is looking into a key seat in the federal election. Some of the issues we have been covering on the show such as the CFMEU, Palestine, Socialist politics, military spending, cost of living and the parties connection to the union movement will be contested down Sydney road.As we look to see the impact of some of these issues on the election, in this episode I speak with two members of the Greens Wills campaign to hear what the mood on the ground is like with the federal election announcement imminent. 

In today's program we continue our focus on how workers win against the odds we look at the Living Wage Movement Aotearoa NZ where a coalition of faith groups, community organizations and unions worked in partnership starting in 2012 on the Living Wage Campaign. We speak with former Union Organizer turned author Lyndy McIntyre about the campaign which she writes about in her document of the struggle Power to Win available at John Reed Books.

 In today's program we ask the question how do people get positive change at work and in their communities when the powers that be seem to be against them?  First we hear from two industrial campaigns that gained positive outcomes for the workers involved.

We've been covering the recent Victorian Government's announcement in relation to the slashing of 3000 jobs across the Victorian public service. And we've been covering a rank n file caucus of workers in the Victorian Public Service, that is fighting to take back their union. A Voice For Members organised against the job cuts, and in defence of their own jobs.The rally was held on the steps of Parliament House on Tuesday 4 March, which was a parliamentary sitting day.Today's show will broadcast three of the speeches delivered at that rally, starting with Zoya, a public servant working in the Department of Education.

Today we have two reports. The first puts the experiences of meat processing workers in Australia under the PALM (Pacific Australian Labour Mobility) scheme under the microscope. Pyria Kunjan speaks with Ema Moolachand about a recent RMIT report here (exhibition here report here petition here) We follow with a word from people who gathered for the Pride March down Fitzroy St, St Kilda on the 2 of February here. Song: Tongan Singer/Songwriter Tyra Lewis - Innocent.

On this weeks episode of Stick Together host James Brennan speaks with author Santilla Chingaipe about her book 'Black Covcits: How slavery shaped Australia.'The discussion talk about how this legacy of convicts of African descent were aboard the first fleet shapes modern Australian racism. The impact of Peter Dutton and the Murdoch media's frenzy of racist hysteria around African gangs on African Australian's today. 

Today's show is about international solidarity, and especially the kind that you build up when you travel to other countries and meet workers involved in struggle. My guest today is Clive Tillman, who attended the International Solidarity Affairs in Manila in the Philippines, that was organised by the militant labour group, the Kilusang Mayo Uno. Plus, some union news!

Last week saw a momentous occasion at the North Fitzroy Library, Melbourne – the launch of A Voice For Members a new rank-and-file caucus covering Victorian state public servants. A Voice For Members is a group of CPSU SPSF members the Community and Public Sector Union and State Public Service Federation committed to revitalising the union by strengthening grassroots  democracy. donations

January 26. Australia Day. Invasion It marks the anniversary of the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet of British Ships at Port Jackson, in New South Wales, the raising of the Flag of Great Britain at that site by Governor Arthur Phillip, the invasion of Australia and the start of genocide against the original owners of this land. January 26 is a day of mourning and a day of struggle, marked by big, loud, powerful Invasion Day rallies right across the country. But the struggle for Aboriginal justice also extends to justice at work, and one of the industries where these issues come to the fore, is in higher education. Universities have amongst the highest rates of Aboriginal employment, but it's also a sector that is so exploitative of workers' intellectual property. Arrende woman, Celeste Liddle, is the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Organiser for the NTEU and we had a long chat about the sector and Aboriginal worker rights. 

In this program we hear from Nurses and Midwives for Palestine speaking up at the Sydney Rally for Palestine on Jan 11. The speaker is Mark and there was a line up of about 20 people in scrubs with a big banner. Mark tells us how they are disappointed that their actual union does not endorse this but that they are a group which has come to every rally. This speech gives a background to the recent so called peace deal which the US has apparently brokered with the Israeli State – the shattered lives of the Gazans, the targeting of health workers for death, imprisonment and torture despite the international protection which is supposed to have been conferred on health workers as non-combatants.

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia. This episode of Stick together features an interview with Alex Ettling and Iain McIntyre authors and editors of the book 'Knocking the top off' a people's history of alcohol in Australia. Alex and Iain explore the history of workers behind the bottle as we raise a glass together at a local bar. 

 As we put 2024 to bed with its defining moment of Federal Labor's legislation placing the CFMEU Construction & General Division into administration it is worth considering the bedrock of workers struggle in this country, the first major event of post-colonial Australia the Eureka Stockade.  We go to the pre-dawn reclaim the radical spirit of Eureka event held in Ballarat on Dec 3 on the site of the original stockade where in 1854 the army and police attack miners for daring to call for the end of mining licenses and universal suffrage.

Special Christmas show with a round up as well as the hyper exploitation of Chinese workers making Christmas decorations.

The campaign to support the CFMEU and it's members continues, Esther Van Erand was an organiser with the union who was sacked for allegedly having a verbal altercation with journalist Nick McKenzie. This episode of stick together brings you the audio from an action in Melbourne outisde the fair work commission, as well as the regular segments of the show including union news a weekly wrap up of union activity from across the working world. 

Today we go outside the Federal Court in Melbourne with National Tertiary Education Union members who are getting their day in court over the system wage theft they have experienced; we give an update on the UWU warehouse dispute with Woolworths; and the QUBE gaming of the Fair Work Act.

No doubt you've noticed the empty shelves at Woolworths stores across the Eastern states of Australia, and you've also heard that it's owing to industrial action. On today's program, we speak with Dario Mujkic from the United Workers Union about the strike of 1800 Woolworths warehouse workers across 3 different states. Plus some union news.Support the strike fund here.

The UWU members working at Woolworths Warehouse sites handling liquor in Victoria and NSW and affecting some sites in Queensland are on indefinite strike leading up to Christmas. Dario Mujkic from the UWU spoke to Green Left 3cr on Friday November 22.We hear from a CFMEU organiser who was at the site of a death of a member at a Victorian Wind Farm recently.We go to the rally for Nurses and Midwives that stopped Sydney CBD on November 13th.

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia.This episode of stick together speaks about the new changes to the NDIS with an interview from Greens senator Jordan Steele John. 

Some highlights from the NSW stopwork rally against CFMEU administration on Tuesday 12 November. The NSW administrators engaged in intimidation and threats against workers to try to prevent the rally from going ahead, but you can't stop genuine unionists from fighting for their right to have a democratic union and a choice in their representation.As well as some union news.Here's the link to the MEAA's gaza appealhttps://crm.meaa.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=15

Two features from the shop floor this week. First the experience of turning an unsafe workplace into one that is able to support its workers.Last week the 2024 Victoria Trades Hall Council HSR conference addressed the topic of OHS skills for active Health and Safety Representatives. We hear one of the featured workplace stories from the conference.  We follow up with part of a discussion between Autistic disability activist Shaun Bickley with Pryia Kunjan from 3cr Thursday Breakfast about the labour exploitation of disabled people with a focus on the issue of wage theft by Australian Disability Enterprises or ADEs.

On today's program we come back to this issue of union solidarity for the struggle in Palestine. We will hear from rank and file unionist working for the public service, Judy McVey talk about the history so far with union support for the struggle, and why workers need to keep fighting.We will also continue our coverage of the CFMEU administration – last week on the show we covered the Westgate Bridge Collapse and how the CFMEU's track record of improved workplace safety was born out of the devastation of that industrial disaster. Today we broadcast some speeches from a public meeting talking once again about the CFMEU's track record of ensuring health and safety on site, as well as its support of migrant women in the workplace.

First we talk with workers compensation Laywer Michelle Tran about Vietnamese workers who are affected by silica dust who are missing out on the financial and medical support they need. We remember the Westgate Bridge disaster. 54 years ago the Westgate Bridge collapsed killing 35 workers outright in Australia's worst construction disaster to date. We go to this years memorial.

Ralph Edwards former Victorian President of the CFMEU and BLF member speaks at migrant workers meeting in Melbourne on the attacks on the CFMEU, lessons for workers and the hostory of the BLF deregistration campaign. 

We hear from the Refugee Rally supported by the UWU. We hear from Defend The Union, Defend the CFMEU. We hear from Union voices in support of Palestine in this darkest time.

More than 1,000 Qantas engineers walked off the job on Monday 30 September, in an escalation of industrial action taken over a wage dispute. This week, we speak with Steve Murphy, National Secretary of the AMWU, about what's behind this industrial action.Plus, some union news

On Tuesday 17th Brisbane saw 5,000 construction workers rally in support of their Union the CFMEU and the new Line in the Sand Campaign endorsed by the Building Industry Group of Unions the AMWU, CFMEU, ETU & PPTEU. This was the first in large rallies around the country with Melbourne seeing 60,000 workers arriving outside the Trades Hall Council Building on the 18th and then snaking its way down through the city to Flagstaff Gardens. First, we hear from Troy Gray from the ETU who MCed the rally and then Zack Smith the National Secretary of the CFMEU before they took to the stage.

On this weeks episode James Brennan speaks with Logan from Melbourne activist legal service about the recent Disrupt Land Forces protests that took place in Melbourne. The protests saw police violence including the use of so called non lethal weapons being deployed against the protesters. The interview speaks about what took place at the protest as well as detailing the rights of those in attendance and what they can do to follow their legal rights. 

On today's show we cover  indefinite strike action at Don KR smallgoods in Castlemaine, as well as a industrial action at Victoria University, whose Vice Chancellor has taken the nuclear option in relation and locked out the workers. Also, some union news from Ambulance Victoria workers; Central Highlands Council workers; Catholic Education Tasmania teachers; and Child Protection workers in NSW. Support the VU workers via their strike fund: https://www.nteu.au/donation/defaultSupport the Dons Smallgoods workers via their strike fund [to be updated when Bendigo Trades Hall announces details]

This week we go to one of the massive rallies held around the country on Tuesday 27th August in support of the CFMEU Construction Division as the Federal Government passes legislation putting the Union under administration and undermining the recently Fair Work Commission approved eba. We follow that with the broader agenda which has led to a community campaign Defend Unions Defend the CFMEU.

Last week a bipartisan effort to bring the CFMEU construction and general division under administration for up to five years was passed into legislation by the Federal Parliament. This marks one of the most anti-union assault in Australian History. As one member said this is a 15 rounder and its only the start of the fight.

It began with students protesting about the future job prospects workign in the Government sector and quickly spread to a broder anti Government uprising. Bangladesh now has an interm Government with the previous leader fleeing the country after the Government response to the protests resulted in over 300 people being killed. In this week's episode of stick together host James Brennan speaks with Dr. Sabrina Sayd about the Bangladesh uprising, the political history and context that led to this uprising and the prosepcts for change that lay ahead. 

Exploitation of Visa holders is notorious within the Australian system. We hear Samati Verma from the Human Rights Law Centre , at the Migrant Workers Centre Conference, covering new laws directed at making employer actions to coerce non citizen workers to do actions against their visas as illegal, she outlines a new visa category called the Justice Visa which is an extremely important development in protecting workers on insecure visas.

Vocational workers at RMIT University took strike action once again, from Thursday 25 July and Wednesday 7 August, over management's refusal to negotiate a new EBA which expired 2 and a half years ago. 3CR's Priya caught up with RMIT University's NTEU Branch Committee member Liam Ward back in March when both university and vocational staff were on strike, just to remind you how long this dispute was going on for.Later in the program, Priya interviews vocational staff member, Tami Gadir about ongoing industrial action at RMIT, but also to contextualise this industrial action in relation to worker solidarity with Palestine as Israel escalates its genocidal campaign of bombing and starvation in Gaza. Note: Priya is also an RMIT employee and NTEU member, and has been on strike with colleagues. Donate to the strike fund here.

In today's program we hear from workers at the Saputo factory in Burnie Tasmania who have been on the grass for six weeks as they fight for wages parity between workers at the Tasmanian factory and their mainland colleagues.

You will no doubt have caught up with the crisis in the CFMEU, starting in Victoria, but impacting the entirety of the union. The CFMEU has long been targeted by governments, media, business and some parts of the general population. While Stick Together does not have a position statement about the CFMEU, we absolutely defend the right of workers of a union to determine their own leadership and their own affairs. And the reality is, the successive Australian governments have systematically introduced anti-union laws making it impossible to effectively fight for workers right – significant ant-worker reforms introduced by the Australian Labor Party.Like the Builders Labourers Federation before it, the CFMEU is now facing the prospect of deregistration. Today's show is the story of the BLF's deregistration. Union activist John Tognolini produced the audio for today's show, it's narrated by Lisa Cruikshank, former presenter of Stick Together over 20 years ago.

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia. Stick Together also explores the contribution that unions make to broader social justice movements, such as environmental campaigns, indigenous sovereignty, women's rights, migrants' rights and more. (3CR) This weeks episode host James Brennan speaks with Janene Rox about the campaign Unite for Change looking to bring early years educators wages and conditions in line with other educators in NSW.

This week two reports. The first from CSIRO, Australia's premier public research organisation which is facing the pruning of a 1/3 of its work force.  We follow that with a report which takes us to the most recent weekly rally in support of Palestine on the steps of the State Library in Melbourne with a speech by AEU member Elspeth Blunt.

On this week's episode of Stick Together, focus on the Wilmar Sugar dispute in Queensland, which we've been providing you with updates over the past year or so. Just a reminder, workers from eight plants of sugar giant Wilmar International have rejected its new wage offer as of 11th June.Some 84.7% of 1,200 workers voted against the pay proposal from the Singapore-owned company. Unions have temporarily suspended industrial action at mills run by Australia's largest sugar producer as negotiations over worker pay resume. My guest later in the program today is Jim Wilson from the Australian Workers Union.Plus some union news.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in England has started to develop resources on the issue via the Cool It campaign, but is that enough? We know that the deadly heatwaves are going to keep happening, so we need a plan to make sure people are protected now and in the years to come. In this episode of Stick Together we hear some of the speakers at the Heat Strike: Workplace temperature and Climate Justice on-line rally full event here 

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia. On this week's episode Host James Brennan speaks with Western Saharan union leader Mohamed Mayara on organising in Western Sahara and International solidarity. 

Today we hear two stories that give us an insight into how Unions fit into ordinary workers lives. In the first we hear from Heidi, a plumber, who I met on May Day celebrations as she outlines her journey into a trade and her changing view on the role of unions in her working life. We then move to an interview with Martin Murphy, a CFMEU steward, as he outlines a serious incident and how the Union worked for a better outcome for the affected workers.

On this week's episode of Stick Together, we look at the struggle for decolonisation in Kanaky with Nic Mclellan. Plus some union news from Australia and the world.

Today we go down to one of the Stop the Ports Rallies held across the country by Unionists for Palestine to highlight the need for Australia to cease aiding and abetting the war on Palestine. In Melbourne thousands covered first at Station Pier then Sandridge Beach in a community gathering emphasising that Unions are not just institutions but made up of the sum total of the individuals that are members. Running underneath the surface of this show of solidarity was the awareness that in NSW members of unions and peace activists are facing criminal proceedings under new draconian anti-protest laws in that state for protesting at Port Botany earlier in the year.