Stick Together

With the Victorian State election looming the state’s trade union movement is escalating their campaign on the introduction of industrial manslaughter laws in Victoria. Queensland and the ACT have already introduced industrial manslaughter laws but currently there is little justice for Victorian workers who are killed at work due to negligence. Paul Sutton, OH&S lead from Victroian Trades Hall Council and Queensland Council of Unions, Assistant General Secretary Michael Clifford, join the show to discuss these laws and the union campaigns surrounding them. Change the Rules : www.australianunions.org.au/12_days_of_actionUnited Voice Portable LSL: www.unitedvoicevic.org.au/portableleaveMEAA Make it Australia: https://makeitaustralian.com/Sign the industrial manslaughter law petition: www.megaphone.org.au/petitions/make-industrial-manslaughter-a-crime

After some news we go to the biggest walk off by early childhood educators in Australia held on Tuesday 27th March. The fight for equal pay for the workers started in Victorian with United Voice members across the country now joining the protest. Centres in Brisbane, Darwin, Canberra, Sydney, Horbart, Adelaide and Perth were joined by rural centres with over 6,000 early educators marching. Stick Together was at the Melbourne rally.News1. Port Kembla Coal Terminal get go ahead to terminate eba2. Yakult win3. TWU unfair dismissal cases against Deliveroo - when is an employee an independent contractor?4. Vic Libs do fire workers wrong.5. USA Teachers take illegal strike action now.

In addition to a weekly wrap of union news, this week we look at two avenues that are used to lift the wages of workers. We first speak with Don Sutherland about the annual minimum wage case, where the commission uses legal argument to decide what low paid workers "need" to survive. We then cross to a picket line at Yakult, where workers are taking matters into their own hands - striking for better pay and conditions.

There is strife on the waterfront and the rumblings are being heard right across the country. Today we speak to Will Tracey, National Deputy Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia (the MUA) before he speaks to a meeting of retired seafarers about the new campaign to save wages and conditions on Australian Wharves.We speak to a stevedore working at Qube on Melbourne’s Webb Dock West where workers went on strike over the weekend to defend their wages and conditionsAnd we hear from Warren Smith, assistant national secretary, about where this dispute is going.

This week Stick Together brings you working women's voices from the International Women's Day March in Melbourne and the Women's Rights at Work Festival event, Feminism in the Pub.

We honour the passing of equal pay activist Zelda D’Prano. Alana Dave International Transport Federation’s Public Transport Programme Leader gives us an insight into her journey from grass roots activism in South Africa to her role in the International Transport Federation (ITF).

This week on the show we look at wage theft. In the throes of an election, the SA Premier Jay Weatherill has announced that if re-elected, his government will introduce a new criminal offence for bosses who deliberately or recklessly underpay their workers. We learn more about the announcement from SA Unions Secretary Joe Szakacs. We also speak with Victorian hospitality worker and union activist Kim about her personal story of wage theft and what workers are doing to fight back.

News items including Port Kembla Coal Terminal Lock-out.The Fair Work Act is allowing bosses to kick workers off their agreements without geniune negotiations.In today’s program we go down to the picket outside Australian Paper in Raglan St Preston Melbourne just as the strikers have been told they have been ordered back to work by the Fair Work Commission after 5 weeks out.We follow this with a win in the ACT. UnionsACT has announced the defeat of worker surveillance laws in front of the ACT Assembly last week.

South Korea is in the global spotlight opening the Winter Olympic games, but behind the celebrations there is another story to hear. One about the ongoing imprisonment of two Korean confederation of Trade union (KCTU) leaders Lee Young-joo and Han Sang-gyun. Later in the Show we speak to the Australian Unemployed Workers Union's Jeremy Poxon about the Welfare Reform Bill 2017 and why fighting back on these changes currently before the Senate is a battle for all Unionist.

Many people take advantage of the On-Demand economy – Uber instead of taxis, food delivery by Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Foodora. Does it matter delivery riders are struggling on low wages, no superannuation, no sick pay, no annual leave, no insurance and no right to challenge being sacked? We give you some highlights from the launch of a new campaign launched on Feb 3 by the Transport Workers Union, the TWU the Australian Council of Trade Unions the ACTU and the Victorian Trades Hall. ON-DEMAND ECONOMY: THE NEED FOR CHANGE