Van Badham and Ben Davison devote a BUMPER EPISODE to talking through: the modern Australian workplace ahead of Labor's Jobs and Skills Summit, the leadership of Sally McManus, Australian unions AND small business to get multi-employer bargaining back into the national discussion, and the *insane* suggestion of sending 13-year-olds into the workforce, and the origins of such a dopey idea.  Ben and Van also share the personal stories of three workers, Janene, Chris and Paul, who are making the case for change.  Like Janene, Chris and Paul you can become a member of your union at australianunions.org.au/wow

Unequal payday happened this week and the ACTU released a report showing how we can unlock $111Billion by empowering women in the workplace and closing the gender pay gap.  Van and Ben examine some of the findings.

We also talk about the planned Stage 3 tax cuts, as per listener request, with our views on why they are bad, why they are not a pressing issue and why Dutton wants this to be the story instead of Jobs and Skills.

We talk about SO much stuff, in fact, that our good news story for the week (about polystyrene!) is going up on our supporter page at www.buymeacoffee.com/weekonwednesday