Stick Together

Over the course of this pandemic almost every aspect of public life has ground to a halt - public protests and street movements are no exception. This week we talk to workers who have been organising to keep our ability to take action in the streets alive, achieving incredible things along the way.Tilde talks with Rose from the Community Union Defence League about their mutual aid programmes, interviews workers in so-called New South Wales about their protests with RAFFWU and the May 1 Movement, and learns from Natalie about the Kangaroo Point blockade being held in Meanjin (Brisbane).You can support the blockade by donating to Refugee Solidarity Brisbane using this link: https://chuffed.org/project/support-the-247-kangaroo-point-blockade/

Is big infrastructure and fossil fuel project really the future for Australian employment? Adam Bandt from the Greens outlines an alternative that mops up youth unemployment and provides a positive future for Australian jobs.

We hear from Aboriginal people at the Black Lives Matter/Stop Deaths in Custody rallies in Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane and then we hear from the Earthworker Cooperative about how workers cooperatives could help build a new economy after COVID-19.

We followed up the experience of the workers at Brisbane's waterfront some of whom have been donating to support kids needing resources for home schooling despite their own insecure work situation, we speak to Felicity Sowerbutts from the Young Worker's Centre as they fight for young workers to keep jobs and get jobkeeper payments and we speak to Dean Lim a member of a sex workers’ collective about how his community is faring.

This week we interview Linda and Austin from the ASU about the situation for laid off workers at the Geelong Regional Library. You can support laid off casuals at the Geelong Library by contributing to their Go Fund Me campaign here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-outofwork-geelong-regional-library-staffLater we have a chat with RAFFWU secretary Josh Cullinan about changes to the Fast Food Industry Award and safety across the retail and fastfood sectors.Finally we have coverage of the NTEU National Day of Action rally held in so-called Melbourne on the 21st of May.

Tim Sullivan talks about the launching of the new library at Bendigo Trades Hall and Tilde Joy interviews JB Hifi workers and RAFFWU members about their fight to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We follow a tribute to Jack Mundey with a win for part time workers at McDonalds and a feature on the #NoConcessionsNTEU campaign against proposals by the NTEU national executive negotiated behind closed doors with Universties Australia and the Federal Government beginning in March with the onset of the covid-19 virus. The National Framework the NTEU national executive wants to take to the membership May 21 will they hope include the avoidance of stand-downs without pay; no new external appointments; redundancies to apply only where the work is ceasing permanently; asuals to receive the work where it is still required to be done; and superannuation payments to be maintained. If they can achieve these things then we would consider offsets that allow employers to implement some cost-saving measures in exchange, such as deferral of pay rises, limited fraction reductions and direction to work other duties.They say it is temporary, They say it is to save jobs. They say workers need to take a hit to keep the industry afloat. And despite the secret negotiations and the limited discussion hampered by constrains of zoom conferencing which gave dissenting voices only one minute to disagree or as has been alleged muting to ensure no discord the National Executive of the NTEU is going ahead with it's strategy of taking a national vote of membership May 21.I spoke to Liam Ward from RMIT in Melbourne about the #NoConcessionsNTEU campaign which has mushroomed around the country in response to the National Framework purposed.

May 1st was May Day and workers all over the world stood in solidarity with each other. We hear what people have been up to in Melbourne and some very inspirational words from local workers.

Tuesday 28 April is International Workers Memorial Day. Last year outside Victoria Trades Hall I found myself quite overcome by the sadness and individual horror of the death of our working comrades who never returned home from work some fateful day. This year with Covid-19 severely restricting large gatherings of people the memorial went online. These memorials were held all over the country and across the world but the theme is the same – we remember the death and fight like hell for the living. Today we return to the Victorian Trades Hall memorial in the wake of the horrific death of four police officers during a traffic stop on a freeway last week. First up the Union choir followed by Victorian Trades Hall Secretary, Luke Hilikari’s opening remarks

We follow up disputes on the wharves, how migrant workers are faring and how RAFFWU workers are demanding a safe work place at JB Hi Fi