Support Telstra Workers
8.45 am Wednesday
4th March 2009
Melbourne Convention Centre
Corner of Flinders St and Clarendon St
-Nth of Yarra River

Bring Union Banners and Flags

more info: www.yourrightsattelstra.com/ | www.cepuconnects.org | Sol’s parting gift for call centre workers | CEPU Telecom & Services Branch 9349 4411

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike, Upcoming Events

Rally
12:00 noon Thursday
5 March 2009
Outside Myer
Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne

download: Pacific Brands rally leaflet

Protest Pacific Brands’ decision to sack 1,850 workers!

Michele O’Neil, National Secretary of the TCFUA today said, ‘This is a devastating blow to these workers, their families, this industry and Australia. We are not talking just the 1850 jobs losses announced today, the likely spin off effect on suppliers and other companies in the industry could well see thousands more jobs lost.’ more details...

more info: Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia (TCFUA) 9639 2955 | info@tcfvic.org.au

Labels: Community Protest, Pacific Brands, Upcoming Events

On Friday February 13 more than 100 people attended a rally outside the 7-Eleven store in the heart of Geelong.

The protest called for 7-Eleven to start paying its workers the legal minimum wage and for all unpaid wages to be paid back to them. The rally was also demanding that one of the workers, who was sacked for making a complaint, be reinstated.

This particular 7-Eleven store on Moorabool Street is particularly dodgy. The operator makes any new employees work for up to 2 months in what he calls an “unpaid trial”.

When he realised that some of the workers were thinking of reporting his illegal behavior to the Workplace Ombudsman, he threatened them with violence. Despite this, while breaking nearly every law in the book, 7-Eleven still had the audacity to visit the Geelong Police station on the morning before the rally asking them to put a stop to it! more details...

more info: www.unite.org.au

Labels: 7 Eleven, Community Protest

12 noon and 1pm Friday
February 13
7-Eleven store
115 Moorabool St Geelong.
[corner of the mall Geelong city centre]

UNITE has opened a second front in our campaign against 7-Eleven’s super-exploitation. Workers in the Moorabool Street store are only paid a flat rate of $10 per hour and some have been forced to do an unpaid trial of up to 2 months! To top it off one worker was stood down for making a complaint and other workers have been threatened with violence.

The Workplace Ombudsman is now investigating the employment practices at the store and complaints have also been registered with Worksafe and the Police. UNITE is demanding that the store start paying all of their workers at least the minimum wage plus penalty rates. We also want the worker who was stood down to be reinstated and for the franchise owner to pay back all of the wages he has stolen from the workers over recent years.

The protest is being organised by UNITE and is supported by the Geelong Trades Hall Council. For more information about our ongoing 7-Eleven campaign.

more info: http://www.unite.org.au/

Labels: 7 Eleven, Community Protest, Upcoming Events

Rally
12.30pm Monday
9 Feb
Testra T Shop
Crn Bourke & Swanston Sts, Melbourne
Download support leaflet

Update: This action was called off due to the bushfires on the weekend
see. "Vic fires delay Telstra industrial action"

Currently Telstra workers are engaged in a landmark dispute with the company for a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA). However this is not just another EBA dispute.

Telstra workers are fighting for the right to a union negotiated agreement, the right to compulsory arbitration, to push back "WorkChoices" AWAs and they are fighting against a relentless management campaign to de-unionise the workforce. more...

more info: www.yourrightsattelstra.com/ | www.cepuconnects.org | support leaflet

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike, Upcoming Events

The Student Housing Action Cooperative (SHAC) is calling for support from now until the time of eviction.

One hundred people attended an emergency rally outside SHAC on Wednesday 7th January as the Sheriff's department met to discuss the strategy for eviction, which they say will happen "sooner rather than later".

Today SHAC received conflicting information from police and from the Sheriff's office regarding a clear timeline for the eviction. SHAC are asking people to stay overnight and defend the premises until such time as the warrant is executed.

more info: shacmelbourne.blogspot.com

Labels: Community Protest, SHAC

12 noon
Wednesday 7th Jan
SHAC - 272 Faraday St Carlton

SHAC Update: On Monday 5th Jan, Melbourne University was granted permission by the Supreme Court to apply for a warrant to reclaim 272 Faraday St Carlton, the site of the Student Housing Action Collective (SHAC) occupation. Homeless students from Melbourne University have been running a successful housing cooperative at SHAC since 20 August 2008.

SHAC were in negotiations with the University until Thursday 18th December when the University presented a bogus offer to the students, gave them 45 minutes to sign on the dotted line, then preceded to place five private security guards outside the premises. The students refused to negotiate under conditions of duress, but made a counter offer in the following days.

The contents of the University's "offer" was that the University would pay the bond and be the guarantor for four or five share houses for a period of twelve months. The houses would have run according to SHAC's cooperative principles. SHAC would select appropriate students who would then be referred to the University's low income test and the University would subsidise the rent of these students.

The problem with this offer was that the Uni had made no commitment to funding any new subsidised places from their existing rental subsidy scheme. In effect, the students selected for the "SHAC share houses" would have been taking the places of other students who fit the Uni's low income criteria. The Uni already has a small amount of properties to house students on low incomes with slightly subsidised rent (approximately $100 per week). The SHAC students could not accept this offer in good conscience. It begs the question: what was the Uni planning to do with these properties if the subsidised students were to shift from University owned houses to share houses from the private rental market? Would the Uni have used the SHAC scheme to make their own properties vacant in order to sell them?

SHAC received notification on Friday 19th December that the Uni intended to seek a warrant for the recovery of land from the Supreme Court on Tuesday 23rd December. The students won an adjournment, with the Supreme Court Judge stating he wanted to hear about how the SHAC case relates to the new Victorian Human Rights Charter, which includes the right to housing.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, SHAC received legal advice from Barristers provided by the Public Interest Law Clearing House (PILCH). The students were unable to commit to the legal process, based on the strong likelihood that the University's legal costs (in excess of $20,000) would be awarded against them. The students were advised that they did not have a case. So the SHAC students made the difficult decision not to engage with the legal process but are now preparing to resist an eviction.

SHAC have called on the supporters of Union Solidarity to be on call to support eviction resistance. The Uni has given the final deadline of 12 noon tomorrow (Wednesday 7th January), however the Uni have not yet served a warrant on the students. It is believed that a warrant may be served sometime this week.

The students involved in the occupation are still hopeful of a positive outcome based on the amount of public awareness raised by the occupation, and the political pressure put on the University.

Victorian Trades Hall Council Secretary Brian Boyd has stated publicly that the Trades Hall Building Industry Group would take appropriate industrial action in the event of an eviction. This means that SHAC's fight for more affordable student housing is far from over!!

more info: shacmelbourne.blogspot.com

Labels: Community Protest, SHAC

Report from Clayton's Global Operations Center
7:30am - 12:00pm
Tues 16th December
Henderson's Road, Clayton

Last week a 9MSN poll returned a result that 90% of voters support striking Telstra workers. On Tuesday 16th December, Telstra workers walked out around the country in protected industrial action that is likely to last for weeks. Union Solidarity supporters joined Telstra workers at Clayton's Global Operations Center (GOC) which handles transmission problems across Australia.

Telstra workers from the Communications Electrical Plumbing Union (CEPU) and the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) want a collectively negotiated, union Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA), not the so-called "Employee Collective Agreements" (ECAs), which are basically collective AWAs, currently offered by Telstra. Staff want better pay rises, conditions such as redundancy agreements set in stone, and improved arbitration procedures. The ECAs would eliminate most award conditions, reduce the rights of union officials in the workplace, introduce a six-day working week with low or no penalty rates, and reclassify pay scales against “market rates”. The ECAs would also lock the union out of future negotiations and would mean that working conditions would be subject to Telstra policy, not accountable to collectively negotiated union agreements.

The ECAs also enable different employment conditions between present and future Telstra workers. The legality of this is dubious. Legal firm Freehills are engineering a system whereby current workers employed under "Part A" would have better conditions than future employees, employed under "Part B". By voting to take protected industrial action, Telstra workers voted to protect the rights of future workers in a display of solidarity. If Telstra workers win the dispute, this may lead to the establishment of a legal precedent that prevents employers from imposing a lower set of conditions for people who are not yet employed.

The cornerstone of the ALP's industrial relations changes, to be introduced in July 2009, is "good faith bargaining". Telstra want to rush through ECAs and the "Part A, Part B" system in order to entrench lesser negotiation and arbitration rights for workers.

Over the past two days, Telstra has lost over $7.4 billion as its share price plummets in the wake of the strikes and the government's announcement that Telstra will be banned from the national broadband roll out.

Stay tuned for further updates and information about how you can support striking Telstra workers.

Labels: Community Protest, Telstra Strike

Solidarity Breakfast
8:30 – 9:30am Mon
Dec 8
Jesuit Social Services
371 Church Street Richmond

On Monday 8 December, fifty people gathered outside the head office of Jesuit Social Services in Richmond in support of Luke McMahon, sacked ASU member and OH&S rep of the year.

Issues of worker justice in the community sector often go under the public radar, as the sector is supposed to have a reputation for social justice.

Luke's supporters heard Luke (pictured above), Liz Turner (Union Solidarity) and Steve Jolly (Cr for the City of Yarra) draw attention to the fact that JSS management had enabled the intimidation of workers at the Brosnan center in Brunswick when Brosnan management threatened to invoke WorkChoices fines against workers.

more info: justice4luke.wordpress.com

Labels: Community Protest, Justice4Luke

Solidarity Breakfast
8:30 – 9:30am Mon
Dec 8
Jesuit Social Services
371 Church Street Richmond

Luke McMahon, winner of the Australian Services Union (ASU) Occupational Health and Safety Rep of the year award for 2008, has been stood down from his position as a youth worker with the Brosnan Centre, an affiliate of Jesuit Social Services (JSS), after he informed management that they had failed to comply with OH&S legislation.

During his time at Brosnan, Luke transformed his workplace from having almost no union membership to almost 100% coverage. He also made sure that occupational health and safety reps were elected in JSS workplaces which previously did not have delegates.

It’s time for the community sector to understand that community fairness starts at home. Social justice is worker justice.

more info: justice4luke.wordpress.com/

Labels: Community Protest, Justice4Luke, Upcoming Events

11am Sat
Dec 6th
Coburg Mall
cnr Victoria & Louisa Sts, Coburg

Bring childcare back into public hands. Give childcare workers decent training and pay.

ABC Learning centres look after 320 children in Moreland. The ALP government's refusal to guarantee that all centres will continue to operate is a blow to children, their parents and and childcare workers.

About 40% of ABC’s earnings came from government subsidy. This went to the profit of Eddy Groves who was worth $260 million in 2006. Now ABC has collapsed owing over a billion dollars to banks.

Endorsed by: Australian Services Union, Carlo Carli MP, Union Solidarity, Student Housing Action Collective, Solidarity

more info & rally endorsement: Judy 0418 347 374 | 0418 316 310 | melbourne@solidarity.net.au

Labels: Community Protest, Upcoming Events

Below is a video from the Student Housing Action Collective (SHAC) rally on Fri 28 Nov 2008. The objective of the rally was to demonstrate community and union support for affordable student housing.



more info: background to issue | shacmelbourne.blogspot.com

Labels: Community Protest, SHAC

12 Hour Picket
7pm Friday 14 November to 7am Saturday 15 November
153 Bannister Rd Canning Vale.

These workers are in an EBA campaign, fighting to keep their current conditions and
win a decent pay rise. Show some solidarity, join them on the picket line.

Labels: Community Protest, Community Solidarity

12 noon - 1pm
Monday 17 November
Steps of the EPA
Herald & Weekly Times Tower
40 City Rd, South Bank

The EPA is agreeing to allow TPI to put a 3rd-rate landfill cap on the leaking Tullamarine toxic dump. After the disaster of the methane gas leak and evacuation of residents from the Brookland Greens housing estate in Cranbourne as a result of being placed close to an abandoned tip, this is a disastrous decision.

more info and upcoming meetings: Kaylene 9309-9416/0402-135-507 | Helen van den Berg 9379-1185

Labels: Community Protest, Environment, Upcoming Events

12pm Friday
28th November
Front of SHAC
272-278 Faraday Street
Carlton

SHAC is a collective of students and supporters who have been occupying four vacant buildings owned by the University of Melbourne for nearly four months in a campaign to secure affordable student housing, starting with turning the occupied buildings into a student run housing cooperative.

Now SHAC is facing eviction. Melbourne Uni have asked us to 'voluntarily' leave on the 28th (reminiscent of their staff voluntary redundancy offers, perhaps?). We're not planning on going anywhere. Community support has always been the backbone of our campaign and we won't be able to win without it. So come along and show your support for SHAC and the affordable student housing cause.

Rally endorsed by UMSU, RMIT SU, NTEU - Melbourne Uni branch

more info: shachouse@gmail.com | www.shacmelbourne.blogspot.com | Max 0401 237 981

Labels: Community Protest, SHAC, Upcoming Events