Stick Together

Stick Together's May Day special broadcast.  Listen to rank and file unionists, environmental activists, socialists, anti-poverty campaigners and many more speak about workers' struggles. Contributors to this year's special broadcast include the Maritime Union of Australia, Friends of the Earth, Unemployed Workers' Union and National Union of Workers.

In this program we will look at some of the reasons the TPP the trans pacific partnership is a problem for workers, we look at two issues of work place safety the recent decision by the Turnbull Government to scrap the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal and a wall collapse at a North Melbourne site onto the footpath. Last cab off the rank in an action packed show we remember that on the 21st of April 1856 the 8 hour day was instituted for the first time in history.

As the Senate blocks turnbull's ABCC bill, the stage is now set for an early election for July 2nd. Together with Jerome Small,  we will be looking at the Bernie Sanders phenomenon and the new labor struggles throughout the Mid-West. This will be followed up by an interview with Keelia Fitzpatrick from the Young Workers Centre at Trades Hall about the need to organise and assist young workers in unpaid internships.

The National Union of Workers (NUW) is carving out a membership from the notoriously exploitatiove workplaces in the Agricultural Industries. This episode of Stick Together gives an insight into how this union is responding to change in Australian working conditions and deregulated markets.

Senator John Madigan was at the March 24 rally for Timor Leste's call for Australia to respect Timor Leste's rightful marine boundaries and the resources there in. Senator Madigan talks about the Timor Leste and the ABCC. CSIRO has been attacked again with cuts to its climate change scientists. A rally on April 2 shows it isn't taking this lying down.

This Easter marks the beginning of the celebrations of the centenary of the Easter Rising in Dublin, when the Irish patriots under the command of James Connolly, Patrick Pearse, T.J. Clarke and others led a revolt against the British Empire and established the first Provisional Government of the Republic of Ireland. Together with the former Connolly Show presenter, Dave Gibney, we will discuss the significance of this important date and what it means for the political situation in Ireland today.

The CPSU is taking it up to the Commonwealth Government with strikes on Monday March 21 in all sections of the Commonwealth Public Service. Over Easter airports will experience disruption when Border Force workers go on strike. After 3 years of the Government refusing to negotiate the Union and its members are pushing back against what the Government calls 'streamlining' but which is actually cuts to conditions and wages for the benefit of a corporate type structure of 'flexiblity' on the part of the employees. In our second report we talk to Dr Pat Ranald from AFTINET about what the Trans Pacfic Partnership (TPP) means to workers.

Denis Rogatyuk, the Stick Together producer, has returned from his 3-month trip in Latin America and is ready to hsare the expiriences of social movements confronting the resurgent right wing and neoliberal forces in the region. Also, we commemorate the 160th anniversary of the 8-hour working day and debate the need for a campaign for a 30-hour working week as the way to unify the labor movement. Godfrey Moase, a show regular adn the assistant general branch secretary of the National Union of Workers, joins us for that.

Work Equality isn't just about wage equivalence. Having work places that plan for women to leave to have children and be able to come back within a year is a measure of Australia's global gender gap rating. The CEO of Breastfeeding Australia says that Australia has fallen to 36th place from a a15th place ten years ago. We speak to Sally Shepherdson about her experience with a company that plans for the success of their female employees. The Turnbull Government recently suggested lower paid workers should be kicked out of the Superannuation system. Women will be most affected according to Ged Kearney from the ACTU. It is a bad idea she says.

Two groups went out on the streets last week. Nteu members went on strike and picketed RMIT for wages and conditions for Vocational Education teachers on Monday Feb 22; Fair Go for Pensioners were on Victorian  Parliament steps on Wednesday calling for jobs.