ASUnion Active - ASU SA+NT Branch News November 06

2006 has been a challenging and eventful year for ASU members and your ASU Office. We face the most hostile industrial relations environment in living memory and perhaps the most hostile in 100 years. It is imperative that workers belong to their Union as it is only through being Active Strong and United that we will see off the Howard Government attacks on members, their families and the broader community.

ASUnion Active November 06

Despite the challenges (and partly because of them) the ASU can look forward to 2007 with optimism. Membership has remained stable since the introduction of the so called Work Choices legislation and we expect it to grow in 2007 as a result of the additional Organising and Industrial resources we have put in place.

To date we have been largely successful in our campaign to ensure employers in members' workplaces do not use the new laws to cut wages and conditions. We now have a variety of common law agreements in place which protect conditions that would otherwise be prohibited under the laws.

We continue to win hundreds of thousands of dollars for individual members in compensation for unpaid wages, unfair dismissals and the like. (see page 7)

We have significantly reduced our dependence on payroll deduction of Union dues and aim to get this down to about 20% of membership by the end of the financial year and we continue to build a sound financial base.

But let's not kid ourselves, there is much more to be done. It was never going to be the well Unionized or well organised workplaces that were going to feel the brunt of these laws first.

It was always going to be the most vulnerable groups of workers (unorganized, the young, the casuals, the unskilled) being hit first.

We must continue to build our collective strength and power in our existing worksites and industries and organise new ones so we can protect and improve industry standards in Local Government, the Community Sector, Energy, Finance, Airlines, Call Centres or wherever members and potential members work.

We will continue to participate in the highly successful Union led Your Rights at Work community campaign to defeat these laws at the ballot box in next year's Federal election.

Most of all we need your continued support because our unity in the face of these attacks on our movement is our greatest asset - get involved in the campaign at your workplace, in your churches, clubs and committees and by participating in community protests.

Remember - The workers united will never be defeated!

Andy Dennard
ASU SA+ NT Branch Secretary

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