What do 120,000 unionists look like?
What do 120,000 unionists together look like? Well to me it looks like change. It looks like Australians are fed up with workplace rights. It looks like it’s about time something gave.
The turn out at the Change the Rules rally in Melbourne yesterday was fantastic. The crowd was estimated to be 120,000 and it stopped Melbourne. We can do amazing things when we all work together and to get the rules changed we need to.
It was heartening to see so many AWU members out too. I tried to get around to say hello to you all but if I missed you please accept my apologies, the size of the crowd made it hard to move around.
I heard many questions what rules need changing. The ACTU has outlined the six main points to delivering fair pay rises. How we get there will take much work and cooperation.
The six points are:
- Convert the minimum wage into a living wage so no full-time worker lives in poverty. This would deliver an immediate pay increase to 2.3 million people.
- End wage theft — make sure our work place laws are changed to so that working people can recover stolen wages and superannuation and make sure there are disincentives for employers who break the law.
- Awards need to move forward with community standards to stop the widening gap between wages in collective agreements and award minimums.
- New bargaining rules to give workers more freedom and to make bargaining fairer. Workers should have the option of bargaining across a sector and we need to re-balance the system so it is not stacked in favour of employers.
- Restore penalty rates to their pre-July 2017 levels and change the laws to stop governments or employers ever cutting them again.
- Secure equal pay for women.
Ben Davis
Secretary, AWU Victorian Branch
