The story behind Working Life
Working Life drew on a long and proud tradition of union-owned publications
Working Life was a daily online publication of the Australian Council of Trade Unions which existed from mid-2013 to mid-2016.
It aimed to provide a new voice and way of seeing the world for Australian workers and union members — a counter to the pro-business corporateowned media that dominates in Australia and too often provides only one side of the story.
Its brief was to produce human stories, breaking news, vigorous comment, and eye-opening opinion from the world of work for an audience who shared the basic values that underpin the Australian union movement: fairness, equality and job security. Daily stories and views about the things that matter in our working lives, including the current issues and campaigns of the Australian union movement.
At all times, Working Life sought to reach a broad audience by always being thought-provoking, entertaining, and sometimes even amusing.
Long tradition
Working Life drew on a long tradition that dated back to the earliest days of the Australian labour movement.
At the start of the twentieth century, newspapers and magazines owned and published by unions took their place on newsstands alongside those owned by the big end of town. The online revolution gave the means to do this again, and Working Life followed that tradition by filling the gap for an opinion-driven website that looks at news, current affairs and lifestyle content from the perspective of Australian workers.
Along with high-profile columnists and bloggers, Working Life produced hundreds of amazing, untold stories from the shop-floor or coal-face, that happen every single day throughout this country.
As endorsed by Andrew Bolt
Australia’s most prominent Right-wing columnist name-checked Working Life in the Herald Sun on 3 March 2014, where he described it as a “new voice for progressive Australia”. So we must have been doing something right!
Backed by Australian unions
Working Life was supported and published by the Australian Council of Trade Unions, which represents almost 2 million working people and their families. Working Life was not affiliated with any political party.
The founding editor was Mark Phillips, who brought to the role long experience in journalism and the union movement, and who steered it through its first two years of life.
As he wrote when launching Working Life: “Our mission is to build an online community where a wide range of workers’ voices will be heard every day and to ensure we never stop agitating to give workers’ issues a more prominent place on the public agenda.”
The website was only part of the Working Life package. Throughout the day, it provided updates on breaking news through Twitter, and it had a presence on Facebook.
This archive is by no means a complete collection of stories published by Working Life. It is maintained and curated by founding editor Mark Phillips, and aims to showcase some of the best journalism produced by the publication.
A fuller archive can be found on the National Library of Australia’s Pandora website.
