The USU’s Winter 2018 edition of United has been sent to members. Check it out.
What drove our forebears to stand united and form our union over 120 years ago? The same reasons we face today.
The reason then, as now, is that the rules favour big business and the powerful. The only way we can stand up and be powerful is by being UNITED.
The only way workers can change the rules is by joining their union.
We are facing a period of extreme threats from a Federal Government who does not care and from big business that will not pay. The Government knows that the only things standing between a fair workplace and an unfair one are the millions of union members who make our movement powerful.
One of the major challenges we are facing is that big business has too much power.
Thirty years of experimenting with trickle-down economics has failed to provide secure jobs, or fair pay rises.
Did you know that despite booming profits, a third of big business still didn’t pay any tax last year?
The rules are certainly working for big business with massive profits and executive bonuses at all-time highs.
But for working people, the rules are broken.
Wage rises have flat lined. Too many people are in casualised and insecure work, while inequality is at a 70-year high.
The gap between the very rich and everyone else, is at record highs.
Changing the rules will allow working people to win more secure jobs and fair pay rises.
It will give us stronger effective universal rights, that can be enforced.
We need to change the rules for more secure jobs.
We need to change the rules so working people can win fair pay rises.
We need to change the rules so workers have rights that can be enforced.
And we need working people to be put before multinational corporations.
It’s time to change the rules.
Graeme Kelly
USU General Secretary
