A successful action was held in the Melbourne CBD yesterday in solidarity with the 500+ locked out distribution workers in New Zealand. The workers are employed by a company called Progressive Enterprises which is owned by Woolworths Australia. They have been locked out until they drop their demand for a collective union agreement. They are fighting for decent pay rises and pay parity across three New Zealand distribution centers. Read report and see photos below. (more…)

UNITE is organising an emergency action in Melbourne to support the 500 locked out supermarket workers in New Zealand. The workers are employed by Progressive, a company which is owned by Woolworths Australia. The details are: 4-6pm Wednesday September 13th outside the Safeway / Big W entrance corner of Lonsdale and Swanston Streets City. See below for the text of UNITE’s leaflet. (more…)

A new union for fast food and retail workers has been launched in Melbourne. The union, UNITE, grew out of a campaign for casual workers rights. UNITE first started in 2003 as an organisation fighting for low paid and casual workers. Its most notable campaigns were the ‘name and shame’ campaign on Brunswick Street in Fitzroy and the campaign to unionise Boarders Books on Lygon Street in Carlton.
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The fast food industry is a source of employment for thousands of young people. The life of a fast food worker usually means casual hours, low pay, workplace bullying, and unsafe work practices. Due to the decline in industries such as manufacturing more and more workers are being employed in the service sector. This growing sector is dominated by a handful of powerful multinational corporations who are determined to aggressively drive down production costs in order to boost profits.

By Anthony Main, UNITE Melboure (more…)

On Sunday April 2, UNITE held a benefit gig to raise money for the Trade Union Rights Campaign - Pakistan (TURC-P). TURC-P has been doing some fantastic work providing relief to thousands of earthquake victims in working class communities across Pakistan. TURC-P has already provided thousands of dollars worth of blankets, tents, food, water and medical aid to those who have been left stranded by the local and international ruling elite. (more…)

Harassment, unpaid overtime, below award wages and irregular shifts, sound familiar? Fast food, retail and hospitality workers have been on the wrong side of the system for many years. But for John Howard these levels of exploitation are not enough. His new industrial relations laws further attack Australia?s lowest paid workers, many of whom are under the age of 25. (more…)

The Federal Government?s new anti worker industrial relations regime will begin next week after Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews unveiled the ?WorkChoices? regulations over the weekend.

UNITE, Melbourne (more…)

The UNITE campaign in Australia supports the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign in NZ. Below we publish a report of a successful mass meeting in Auckland. Over 1000 fast food workers and their supporters filled the Auckland Town Hall yesterday to give added impetus to the SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign and to other low paid workers campaigns. (more…)

Taken from the latest newsletter of the Electrical Trades Union.
The December edition of the ETU News featured Clinton Jennings from Unite, an organisation devoted to the rights of young casual workers. Unite will have a stall at the Big Day Out on Sunday 29 January at Princes Park (Melbourne), with the aim of letting young workers know what their rights are. (more…)

The UNITE campaign for casual workers rights, in Australia, would like to send solidarity greetings and congratulations to the Unite members at Starbucks in New Zealand. These workers staged the first ever strike at Starbucks world wide yesterday and are fighting for a $12 minimum wage and secure hours. See the Unite (NZ) media release below. Also click on the links to the supersizemypay website and video footage of the strike.

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