union solidarity symbol joined hands

contacts

This page was discontinued on 4-1-2009 see Union Solidarity folds but idea needs to live on
 

A short History

Back in 1856 Australian workers won the first ever eight hour day.

The bosses of the day didn't like it. The media of the day called it a dangerous and foolish idea that would "destroy society as we know it". The colonial government didn't want anything to do with the idea either.

Nevertheless, we took industrial action and organised mass protests and won the campaign and kept organising and advocating for better wages and conditions for workers.


We won the right to organise in unions. We won the right to a safer work place. We won the right to four weeks annual leave, long service leave and sick leave. Some unions won the 36-hour week. More recently, a massive campaign of unions and community groups forced James Hardie to pay compensation to asbestos victims. The government didn’t force James Hardie to pay. It was unions which won this victory over a callous company.


And we didn't just concern ourselves to working issues. In the 1890s we campaigned for Women's suffrage. In 1916 we campaigned against conscription. In the 1930s for a basic wage, in the 1950s against legislation banning political organisations. In the 1960s against the Vietnam war, in the 70's against apartheid in South Africa.We supported East Timor before it became fashionable or politically expedient. History has proven us right on every occassion.


Trade unions are today central to the campaigns supporting refugees and opposing Australia's involvement in the War on Iraq. History will doubtless prove us right on these issues in ten years time.


While none of these things were just handed over, it would be a foolish government indeed that attempted to reverse any of the social issues such as suffrage, conscription, support for apartheid fought for and won by the trade union movement in partnership with the community.


The current Howard Australian Government is however attempting to reverse some of the basic industrial gains achieved by trade unions. Now that the Government has control of both Houses of Parliament, they are changing fundamental laws underpinning industrial relations in this country.


They are willing to try to destroy our unions to claw it back. They don’t mind if unions exist as service organisations, as long as we don’t organise our members industrially.


That’s why the Coalition government is planning legislation to:

* Remove conditions in awards such as redundancy pay, penalty rates, long service leave.
* Introduce secret ballots before industrial action.
* Make it easier for employers to impose Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts) on workers.
* pattern bargaining.
* Restrict the democratic right of workers to have their unions visit them in their work places.
* Remove unfair dismissal protection for workers in small businesses.
* Remove redundancy payment rights for workers in small businesses.
 

What's RSS?

To find out more about RSS and whether you can use it click onto the link below.

What is RSS?
 

RSS

To publish Union Solidarity on your website or news service copy and paste the following link into your code.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/UnionSolidarity
 

Site Feed Back

If you are experiencing any problems with our website please let us know.

Tell us:
  1. what is exactly is happening
  2. what type of computer your using (IBM or MAC)
  3. what type of Intenet browser (eg. Internet Explorer, Netspace, etc)
  4. when the problem occured

*It may be that you are looking at an old version of the site. Hit the refresh or reload button to make sure your viewing the latest content.

Contact Us on the email address below with the words "Site Problem" in the subject bar. We will attend to the problem as soon as possible.

contact@unionsolidarity.org
 

SMS alert list

Join the Union Solidarity SMS and email alert list and be informed about disputes in your local area

About Union Solidarity

Union Solidarity is a network of community and union activists building a movement to resist the attacks on workers, unions and the community. more...

Recent Actions

Recent Publications

Open Rebellion, why we oppose anti-union laws.
For the Record, brief history of our success
Unjust laws wont defeat us, our record and the SMS alert system

Valid CSS!

Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict

Disclaimer: Articles appearing on www.unionsolidarity.org come from a wide variety of sources. Opinions expressed and reportage of events do not necessarily reflect the position of Union Solidarity or meant to imply endorsed by any group Union Solidarity is supporting at the time of publication.