Stick Together

Parks Victoria workers, after a year in negotiations have been forced to take action refusing an offer that would lock in lower pay and conditions, and put them behind colleagues in other parts of the Victorian public sector. The same level paid a lower rate.Adding insult to injury the executive branch of Parks Victoria are paid at the broader Victorian Public Service wage rates. Stick Together reports from the action held at the foot of the high rise in the Melbourne CBD at 300 La Trobe street on Monday 25th of May.

Two issues this week with a common theme.First the Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation branch in South Australia the ANMF SA has stepped up industrial action after the returned Labor Government in South Australia were unable to negotiate better pay and conditions after returning to office.  We speak with CEO/ Secretary ANMF SA Elizabeth Darbars hereIn Victoria the Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) are outraged at the Allan Government’s budget for failing to address gender inequality in the largely female workforce. Industrial protected action is in process. We speak with Secretary VAHPA Andrew Hewat here

Tim Gooden by Andy Urquhart On this weeks episode meet former Geelong Trades Hall Secretary, Tim Gooden. We chat and walk through GTH and chat about the towns local union history!Below are mediocre photos I took of the beautiful photos and artworks displayed around the building. Geelong Wool Combing Dispute John Howards Individual Contracts Mass Strike 2005Sandra Kranz Murals WA Solidarity and Unwelcoming John Howard in GeelongGeelong Women UnionistsJohn Kranz and 888 History

International Worker's Memorial Day is held on the 28th April. A sobering event marking the passing of workers who died from work related injuries. First we hear from some of the people who gathered to honour the dead, followed by the Victorian Premier Jacinta Allen,  then from Lana Cormie, now part of a group with lived experience of loss working to change the system, and ending with some of the remembrance of those who never returned home from work.

In this episode of Stick Together we chat with Tash Wark, Secretary of the ASU Vic/Tas Branch about the multi-council campaign they are running in metropolitan Melbourne. We also hear a statement given by Dave Ball in regional town Geelong on the war in Iran. Geelong is quickly becoming one of Australia's biggest defence industry towns with the Geelong Defence Alliance and Geelong on the Rise projects.

The term critical minerals seems to be everywhere at the moment. Whether in discussions of Trump’s aspirations to annex greenland or the Albanese government's attempts to avoid US tariffs by bolstering US access to Australia’s Lithium, cobalt and other rare earths and critical minerals - it is becoming increasingly obvious that securing access to these natural resources is a top priority of the Trump administration. In today's show we will be looking at the significance of Critical Mineral security in American foreign policy and in particular the US exploitation of the Congo as a source of critical minerals. Speakers:Maurice Carney, co-founder and executive director of the Friends of the Congo;Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute and co-author of Shafted: The Scramble for Critical Minerals in the DRC; Mira Rubio, coordinator of the California Trade Justice Coalition and director of CRITICAL MINERALS: Creating a Just & Sustainable Clean Energy Transition.

Like me you might have been blown away by the announcement that the Fair Work Commission was abolishing junior rates of pay in the retail, fast food and pharmacies industries. It was plastered on headlines across legacy media, ACTU and Labor Party sources. But of course the headline isn't the whole story. We spoke to Josh Cullinan from the Retail and Fast Food Workers Union RAFFWU, the only voice at the Commission calling for the scrapping of the junior rate of pay about how the system continues to be rigged against young workers.

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. In this week's episode we bring you union news from around the country and speak to early education delegate and United workers union members first delegate Nicki about the upcoming union election.

In this episode we begin the episode with a great chat with Dr Adrian Marshall from the Grassy Plains Network. We hear the shocking stat 0.56% of Native Grasslands left in Victoria, and that's likely an OVER ESTIMATE! Learn about one of the major contributing factors to their decline which is agencies and corporations wrecking havoc on these sites even when they are responsible for their care and how there is a workforce waiting in things ready to help... they just need jobs.grassyplains.net.au/

Tuesday 24th of March saw the biggest 24 hour stoppage by educational staff in Victorian public schools in history. Represented by the AEU, 98% of members voted yes to the stoppage. The AEU is an industry based union and the members include Education Support Staff, Teachers and Principals. 40,000 educators and their allies took to the streets and raised their voices for a better deal.