With mounting job losses and the highest unemployment rate in over a decade, the Abbott Government needs to abandon its empty rhetoric and tell Australians where the new jobs are going to come from. ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said news today that Aloca will close its Point Henry aluminium smelter…

Since the last meeting on 11 December 2013 (see bulletin 7) your National Negotiating Team (NNT) have scheduled 3 meetings with Jetstar management to try and get the company's response to our EBA 5 issues – each time the company reps have postponed the meeting saying they could not get…

Qatar's new World Cup worker welfare standards do not deliver fundamental rights for workers and merely reinforce the discredited kafala system of employer control over workers, warned the International Trade Union Confederation. You can read this article on the ITUC website here "Forced labour continues in Qatar today with no…

ASU members, parents and families of children who attend the Altona North and Altona Meadows children's services are taking a short pause in their work to campaign for their beloved services after a small but important victory at last night's Hobson's Bay Council meeting. "Hobson's Bay Council had planned to…

TONY Abbott and his new Coalition government have long planned a Royal Commission into the union movement. This, of course, was not a policy that the Coalition took to the 2013 election. Such a naked attack would have ‘scared the horses’, exposing what the Coalition has been desperate to hide—its…

The ASU's success in negotiating the world's first enterprise agreement clause supporting victims of domestic violence in 2010 has been recognised in a recent academic study as an instance of achieving equality measures through bargaining. The study by Professor Marian Baird of Sydney University considered the circumstances around the ASU's…

The ASU welcomed the announcement late last year of the establishment of a Senate Select Committee to inquire into the Federal Government's National Commission of Audit (NCA). We believe this Senate Committee will provide some independent advice and allow community views to be heard. The ASU has lodged a submission…

The ASU supports the recent letter sent by our trade campaigning partner AFTINET (Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network) to local councils across the country advising of the various adverse effects the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement could potentially have on local government. The ASU is a supporting partner and affiliate…

In addition to the inquiry already underway by the Productivity Commission, the Australian Senate will also be inquiring into the early childhood education and care sector. As a major stakeholder in this sector, the ASU will be making a submission to advocate for our members. "The ASU is pleased to…

On 29 January 2014 the Fair Work Commission approved your new EBA. This is fantastic news and testament to union member's perseverance in holding out for a better agreement. Your new EBA takes effect 7 days after Commission approval so therefore all of the new provisions and improved conditions are…