Stick Together

Exploitation of Visa holders is notorious within the Australian system. We hear Samati Verma from the Human Rights Law Centre , at the Migrant Workers Centre Conference, covering new laws directed at making employer actions to coerce non citizen workers to do actions against their visas as illegal, she outlines a new visa category called the Justice Visa which is an extremely important development in protecting workers on insecure visas.

Vocational workers at RMIT University took strike action once again, from Thursday 25 July and Wednesday 7 August, over management’s refusal to negotiate a new EBA which expired 2 and a half years ago. 3CR’s Priya caught up with RMIT University’s NTEU Branch Committee member Liam Ward back in March when both university and vocational staff were on strike, just to remind you how long this dispute was going on for.Later in the program, Priya interviews vocational staff member, Tami Gadir about ongoing industrial action at RMIT, but also to contextualise this industrial action in relation to worker solidarity with Palestine as Israel escalates its genocidal campaign of bombing and starvation in Gaza. Note: Priya is also an RMIT employee and NTEU member, and has been on strike with colleagues. Donate to the strike fund here.

In today's program we hear from workers at the Saputo factory in Burnie Tasmania who have been on the grass for six weeks as they fight for wages parity between workers at the Tasmanian factory and their mainland colleagues.

You will no doubt have caught up with the crisis in the CFMEU, starting in Victoria, but impacting the entirety of the union. The CFMEU has long been targeted by governments, media, business and some parts of the general population. While Stick Together does not have a position statement about the CFMEU, we absolutely defend the right of workers of a union to determine their own leadership and their own affairs. And the reality is, the successive Australian governments have systematically introduced anti-union laws making it impossible to effectively fight for workers right – significant ant-worker reforms introduced by the Australian Labor Party.Like the Builders Labourers Federation before it, the CFMEU is now facing the prospect of deregistration. Today’s show is the story of the BLF’s deregistration. Union activist John Tognolini produced the audio for today’s show, it’s narrated by Lisa Cruikshank, former presenter of Stick Together over 20 years ago.

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia. Stick Together also explores the contribution that unions make to broader social justice movements, such as environmental campaigns, indigenous sovereignty, women's rights, migrants' rights and more. (3CR) This weeks episode host James Brennan speaks with Janene Rox about the campaign Unite for Change looking to bring early years educators wages and conditions in line with other educators in NSW.

This week two reports. The first from CSIRO, Australia's premier public research organisation which is facing the pruning of a 1/3 of its work force.  We follow that with a report which takes us to the most recent weekly rally in support of Palestine on the steps of the State Library in Melbourne with a speech by AEU member Elspeth Blunt.

On this week’s episode of Stick Together, focus on the Wilmar Sugar dispute in Queensland, which we’ve been providing you with updates over the past year or so. Just a reminder, workers from eight plants of sugar giant Wilmar International have rejected its new wage offer as of 11th June.Some 84.7% of 1,200 workers voted against the pay proposal from the Singapore-owned company. Unions have temporarily suspended industrial action at mills run by Australia's largest sugar producer as negotiations over worker pay resume. My guest later in the program today is Jim Wilson from the Australian Workers Union.Plus some union news.

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in England has started to develop resources on the issue via the Cool It campaign, but is that enough? We know that the deadly heatwaves are going to keep happening, so we need a plan to make sure people are protected now and in the years to come. In this episode of Stick Together we hear some of the speakers at the Heat Strike: Workplace temperature and Climate Justice on-line rally full event here

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. Stick Together features interviews with workers, unionists, community campaigners and academics from right across Australia. On this week's episode Host James Brennan speaks with Western Saharan union leader Mohamed Mayara on organising in Western Sahara and International solidarity.

Today we hear two stories that give us an insight into how Unions fit into ordinary workers lives. In the first we hear from Heidi, a plumber, who I met on May Day celebrations as she outlines her journey into a trade and her changing view on the role of unions in her working life. We then move to an interview with Martin Murphy, a CFMEU steward, as he outlines a serious incident and how the Union worked for a better outcome for the affected workers.