As of July 1st the Howard Government will hold a majority in both Houses of Parliament, giving the Liberals an unhindered position to implement their neo-liberal agenda to cut social spending on education and welfare, and to attack working people. Due to the very real prospect of a world economic downturn, and in order to increase their profits, Howard is stepping up the interests of multinational corporations, and targeting young people and their future!
By Kylie McGregor, UNITE Co-ordinator Melbourne
Howard’s ‘Reforms’ to Make Millions Casual
By Kylie McGregor, Coordinator of UNITE
Howard, not content with the ‘flexibility’ bosses get from casualisation, is renewing his push for Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs), as the way to keep labour costs lower than ever. AWAs or individual contracts, attack collective agreements, the award system and protection mechanisms for employees. Ultimately, Howard’s AWAs are an attempt to strip away unions and the award system in one foul swoop. Many Bosses on Brunswick street, and in other small business centres around Victoria are pressuring their staff to sign AWAs.
UNITE SUPPORTERS!
UNITE LAUNCHES ITS NATIONAL PETITION CAMPAIGN THIS MONDAY: CAMPAIGN 10, 000
UNiTE will launch its petition this Monday in Melbourne, Bourke Street Mall. Unite aims to gather a minimum of 10,000 signatures to present to federal parliament.
Lets make the politicians take note , and make casualisation an election issue!
Email Unite on (or ) for a pdf of the petition and send copies to PO Box 1015, Collingwood, Victoria 3066
UNiTE will return to BORDERS BOOKS and rally in support of the workers. It appears as though Borders is on the back foot, yet this is no time to ease the pressure against this multi-national bully which has been getting away with apalling conditions and pay. Show your support and come to our rallies: FRIDAY : Lygon St, Carlton at 6pm SATURDAY: 500 Chapel St, South Yarra at 1pm Be a part of the victory against BORDERS the BULLY!
About 80 mainly young casual workers attended the Unite Casual Workers’ Conference in Melbourne’s Trades Hall on April 3rd. After a VJ performance (video and reggae music) on casualisation, the Conference was opened by Lynn Beaton, a left wing academic concentrating on the rise of casualisation. She showed with facts and figures that casualisation is a massive growing feature of Australia’s workplace relations, especially effecting women.
Comrades
The first ever Casual Workers Conference has been called by Unite for Saturday 3rd April 2004.
The Conference will be an opportunity for the voice of casual workers to be heard. 2.2 million (1 million casual for over one year) face a working life without sickies, holidays, job security, the ability to get a loan and more.
The ALP has just announced its new policy for casual workers.
As SP and UNITE has been arguing for months now, the issue of casualisation is of growing concern for working class people in Australia and at last the ALP have smelt the political mood and announced some policy initiatives. Whether they are implemented by a Labor government is another matter.
However UNITE should be congratulated for pushing casualisation onto the mainstream political Aagenda...
The UNITE campaign has had massive coverage in today's Melbourne Age in relation to its campaign to clean up Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Check out the article
Click here and...
also read the Age forum on casualisation created on their web page as a result of the article. It has stories from casual staff...
Click here
Unite is holding a day of action on Brunswick St, Fitzroy on Saturday 6th December from 12 noon, meeting outside Black Cat cafe, 252 Brunswick St, Fitzroy and then marching down the street. Naming and Shaming is set to begin!
The following week Unite is hosting the second trade union training day from 2pm on Saturday 13th December at Trades Hall. The theme is: How to organise
An exciting new campaign in Melbourne (based on a similar one in New Zealand) is beginning the task of fighting the exploitation of casual workers. Unite Co-ordinator Nicki Jonas reports...
UNITE meeting for all workers on Brunswick St
On Saturday 20th September at 3pm at the Provincial Hotel (cnr Brunswick/Johnston Sts) the UNITE campaign is announcing which shops, bars, restaurants and coffee shops on Brunswick St have confirmed their decent treatment of their casual staff and are therefore getting the sticker of approval (see below) for their shop.
More casual jobs and the limited bargaining power of low-skilled workers have created a new "working poor", according to the head of the Senate inquiry into poverty. From Australian Financial Review, 22nd August 2003
Matt McCarten interviewed about Unite, the grassroots community trade union in NZ that fights the exploitation of casuals. SP-initiated Unite in Australia has copied the name and many of its ideas
Anonymous writes "UNITE: The new Socialist Party-initiated campaign to stop the rip-off of casual and part-time workers and to name and shame dodgy bosses"
