Stick Together

Migrant workers have always been an important part of our communities and our economy. Last week a report was released with the shocking statistics that roughly half of migrant workers are receiving $15/hr or less. More startling is the fact that over 90% of these workers are not making any attempts to recover these unpaid wages. We speak with Laurie Berg, one of the authors of the report. We also speak with the NUW's George Robertson about what that union has uncovered in its work with the largely migrant workforce on Australia's farms.

First up a word with a delegate for the newest Union the Retail and Fast Food Workers' Union and then we go to Adelaide to an Anti-Poverty Week event, where Council candidates from 11 Councils – including a Lord Mayoral candidate – came together with a clear message: local governments should advocate for their residents who are out of work and living in poverty, by adding their voices to the campaign to raise Newstart Allowance.

The mass rallies to Change the Rules kicked off in Perth on Oct 18 followed by rallies in Melbourne, Sydney, Wollongong, Cairns, Mackay, Darwin, Rockhampton and Townsville on Oct 23. In this program we take you to the streets of Melbourne where 170,000 workers demanded change to the industrial laws in Australia.

In addition to your weekly wrap of union news, this week we bring you two stories out of the fast food and hospitality industries. In the UK, workers at TGIFridays and Weatherspoons joined McDonalds workers to take strike action for higher pay and better jobs. One of their demands is to end youth wages, where young people are paid less for doing the same work as older workers. We also speak with Josh Cullinan from RAFFWU, about McDonald's practice of using youth wages in Australia to drive down costs.

The launch of a new report Working it out: a look at employment services in Australia which brings the unemployed person's voice to the policy table. AUWU. Per Capita and Monash University worked together to bring you this groundbreaking work.

Today we report on the mass delegates meeting at the Melbourne Convention Centre held last Tuesday Sept 25. This meeting was to endorse the first of the change the rules monster rallies expected across the country. This is part of the Unions Change the Rules campagn that has anti union, anti worker governments in their sights.Sick of it Report into the experiences of young women workers in the ACT paints a grim picture of exploitation and wage theft.

This week we speak with Allen Hicks, the National Secretary of the ETU about the Labor party's decision to join with the Liberals and pass the legislation required to enable the TPP. Allen talks about the union's concerns about the TPP's content and the ALP's decision to wave it though. We also speak with CFMMEU official, Kevin Harkins about the Chinese plasterers at Hobart hospital who walked off the job recently after receiving no wages for several weeks. As always, we bring you a weekly wrap of union news. This week we report on the widespread arrest and detention of workers at the Istanbul airport site, the pathetic increase to the Newstart Allowance and the report by the Senate Committee into the future of work.

A couple of Fridays ago I was down at the CFMEU offices on Elizabeth St in Melbourne at a special presentation to Delegates in the construction industry about silicosis a lung disease that is claiming the lives of workers in their 20s and 30s, It is being called the new asbestos. We bring you an extended report from this sobering event which marks the beginning of a national campaign for a safer standard for silica exposure.

Early Childhood Educators increase the pressure for professional pay rates with 7,000 workers, lead by United Voice, staging a nation wide walk out.Queensland Parliamentary Enquiry into wage theft is underway - Craig Garret reports.

In addition to your weekly wrap of union news, this week we bring you the story of two large strikes.We speak with Paul McAleer of the MUA about the planned mobilisation in Sydney on Thursday 6 September, where several unions will turn out in support of a number of different demands. We then cross to Melbourne where we speak with Kerrie Devir (United Voice's Victorian President and Early Childhood Educator), about why she is joining the nation-wide walk off of educators on September 5 - touted to be the nation's largest ever.