Fuel package: PAYE workers left behind … again

April 13th: Unite, which represents workers across Ireland, today said that the package of fuel supports announced last night by the Government would do little to alleviate the cost-of-living crisi…

Unite the Union, Ireland Region
SIPTU condemns Government failure to support workers

SIPTU General Secretary, John King, has condemned the Government’s abandonment of low to average income households amid a worsening cost-of-living crisis.

SIPTU - Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union
Energy costs: Workers will not pick up tab for another crisis

Trade union action needed to force Government to address spiralling cost-of-living crisis    Unite member consultation to assess energy cost impact  Unite, which represents workers throughout Irela…

Unite the Union, Ireland Region
Jones Engineering in Belgium: MEPs support Unite campaign against union-busting

Unions and parliamentarians raise ‘social dumping’ concerns Jones warned not to export shoddy labour practices Belgian trade unionists and MEPs joined Unite this week in Charleroi to send a clear m…

Unite the Union, Ireland Region
SIPTU General Secretary warns cost-of-living crisis will impact wage negotiations 

SIPTU General Secretary, John King, has warned that the added cost-of-living increases will mean additional pressure for wage increases in negotiations.

SIPTU - Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union
Sunday Read: You need your Union in this crazy world

In uncertain times, union membership is not just advisable, it is essential.

SIPTU - Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union
National protocol and fair pay for extreme weather work needed

As Storm Chandra continues to batter Ireland with heavy rain, high winds, and flooding, resulting in travel disruption and power outages, SIPTU has renewed its call for a binding national protocol

SIPTU - Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union
@billiglarper @acb @aj Thanks for sharing your insights around trade unions in Germany ☺️

I think the use of gig-economy workers and "self-employed" sole-trader contractors by companies who want to de-unionise are a bit of a problem everywhere, unfortunately.

A small step forward down here has been "same work same pay" legislation. This mandates that workers hired through labour hire firms get the same wages and conditions as directly-employed staff: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/business-rallies-against-same-job-same-pay-laws/102439720

With fragmentation, I think part of the issue down here is that, until the 1970s, we had a lot of small unions.

Between the '70s and '90s, there was a concerted push for these unions to merge into "super unions" that represent whole industries.

So for example, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union came about through the merger of the boilermakers, automakers, fitters & turners, printers, food processors, and engineering unions.

The issue is that Australian law only recognises one union per trade or profession as being the legitimate union that's allowed to bargain for workers in that sector.

So the unions tend to tightly guard their turf and take each other to our industrial relations court (the Fair Work Commission) if another union tries signing up workers in their industry.

So we have trades-based unions working in a system of enterprise bargaining, which is not ideal.

Most of our union's state branches are members of their states' respective trades hall councils (basically the peak union body in each state). At a national level, they're members of the ACTU (which is the peak national body for unions in Australia).

And the unions get 50% of the delegate votes in the Australian Labor Party (our main supposedly "centre-left" party) with the other 50% by party members.

The issue is some of our unions tend to be quite socially conservative. (The SDU, which represents retail workers, and AWU, mostly unskilled trades, in particular.)

We've also had a string of economically neoliberal pro-"free-market" governments that have put restrictions around workers' right to strike.

The low point was in the mid 2000s, when a conservative prime minister named John Howard tried to introduce a policy called "Work choices". It would have replaced enterprise bargaining with individual contracts.

Thankfully, he was voted out, and that policy was dumped.

#unions #tradeunionism #capitalism #workers #socialism #auspol #collectivebargaining #tradeunions
Business groups mount campaign against 'same job, same pay' workplace reforms

Some of Australia's largest employers and small business owners have united to rally against proposed laws that would require labour hire workers doing the same job at the same site to be paid the same as directly employed workers.

ABC News
📜 Trade Unionism — Social Ecology and Communalism Workshop

📜 Trade Unionism: In the beginning, there were peasant communities; they were destroyed by the bourgeoisie. (...)

Social Ecology and Communalism Workshop

"Preston, vote for your board of directors"

REI, a fucking *co-op*, is engaged in union busting. The union wants us to vote down (vote to "withhold") all three of the candidates put up for the board. See screenshots for what the email and process looks like to do so.

More context from the union: https://www.ourrei.com/2025-rei-board-elections

#rei #REIUnion #coop #TradeUnionism #unions #TradeUnions #LaborUnion #LaborUnions #Labour #labor #LabourUnion #LabourUnions #hiking #biking #outdoors

Vote NO in REI’s Board Election | REI Union

Learn how REI Co-op members are standing up and fighting back against their corporate Board of Directors during this year's election.

REI Union