Two record-breaking union meetings at Melbourne University have voted overwhelmingly for another week-long strike, starting on 2 October.
It all feels a bit surreal. In a few short hours we’re walking off the job and embarking on one of the longest strikes at the University of Melbourne since 1856—when stonemasons downed tools to win the eight-hour day. It’s the longest major university strike in the history of our union, the National Tertiary Education Union.
After over 12 months of campaigning for a new workplace agreement, Monash University staff will strike on 23 October.
The 2015 Queer Collaborations conference, one of several student conferences organised by the National Union of Students over the mid-year break, should have been an opportunity for the 100 or so attendees to discuss the continued fight back against the homophobia and transphobia of the Abbott government.
The Australian Retailers Association is no friend of workers. Its executive director, Richard Zimmerman, has declared: “The balance between employment and remuneration would be made right through … [the] reduction of penalty rates.” Zimmerman is just one of a growing number of voices calling for wage reductions for already underpaid workers.
The Australian Climate Commission’s recently released report “The Critical Decade 2013” warns that, unless global carbon emissions are reduced to almost zero by 2030, irreversible, catastrophic climate destruction will occur.