Stick Together

In today’s program we feature the voices of workers and Union organisers who will be going to the September 20th Global Day for Climate Action Rallies being held around the country and  indeed around the world. We hear why they will be standing with students who have invited adults to come and stand with them for our future.

This week we speak with Aran Mylvaganam from the Tamil Refugee Council about the situation of Priya and Nades and their children facing imminent deportation and the importance of union support for their struggle. Then we hear from ACTU Indigenous Officer Lara Watson about the situation facing remote Indigenous communities as they are subject to the government's Community Development Program.

This week on the show we bring you the stories from two protests in two different countries. We take you to Crown Casino in Melbourne, where hundreds of workers marched the full length of the promenade. Frustrated with stalled negotiations and proposed wage cuts, their protest increases pressure on the company in the lead up to football finals and the spring racing carnival.  Then we take you to Taiwan, where a group of international union activists staged a protest out the front of the headquarters of electronics multinational FoxConn. The protest was in support of migrant workers in Japan who the union says were the target of discriminatory sackings at one of the company's subsidaries. We speak with the workers at the centre of the dispute. As always, we have your weekly wrap of union news, which includes the big news out of Tasmania that means more sick leave for 12 hour shift workers.

Two reports for you today. The first is about the Star of the South Energy Project the first offshore wind farm in  Australia. Will Tracey the Deputy National Secretary of the MUA and Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth on the subject. We end with a word from Thomas Mayor, Deputy Branch Secretary of the Northern Territory Branch of the MUA who spoke at the recent IPAN Independent Peaceful Australia Network conference recently held in Darwin.

Today we are looking at education. As the Morrison Government is fumbling around in the dark when it comes to it’s support of Australian workers and their education needs the Liberal party one trick pony does another turn of the carnival ground with Morrison pushing to privatise TAFE. We get a view on the announcement from the Australian Education Union.On the funding of Universities front the Government has announced $80 million of tied funding this follows a two years $2.2 billion funding freeze for the sector – there are some pretty scrawny chickens in that hen house I think.We get a perspective from the National Union of Students on the new funding regime.

Annie speaks with Dario Mujkic, Assistant Secretary of the NUW Victoria Branch, about the EBA negotiations at IGA Metcash in Laverton and the expectation on workers to give up their rights for a pay rise. I also spoke with Chris Spindler from the AMWU about the uncertain situation facing workers in Ballarat with the Victorian State Government still yet to announce a new contract for ALSTOM, putting workers jobs in doubt at the regional railway manufacturing plant.

This week on the show we examine the recent report released by the NUW. It includes survey responses from more than 600 farm workers, many of whom are in the supply chain for the major supermarkets.  We wpeak with the NUW about the results and what is needed to improve conditions on the farms that grow the food we all eat.  We also speak with Steve Diston of the ETU about the dispute at OI Glass, as well as Simon Schmidt from the IEU about the industrial action at Al-Siraat college in Melbourne's North.

Loads of news and local wharfies send a loud and clear message to big business that they will not be bullied and intimidated into surrendering workplace rights and conditions.

The return of the Liberal National Party Government is supposed have been balanced on the decisions of people who were worried about their jobs in mining in Queensland. This may or may not be true. But what is true is that workers are being killed in these same mines in what the CFMMEU is calling a "safety crisis".  We interviewed Steve Smyth, District President CFMMEU Mining and Energy Division Queensland on Saturday 6th of July by Monday 8th of July another man had died.

This week we bring you a special episode for NAIDOC week. We explore the struggles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for land and economic justice. We speak with two activists across two states about how people are standing up to defend their land and how unions are standing with A&TSI people in their struggles.