Today, workers in Australia have brand new rights

Today is an important day for workers’ rights. It’s the day that major parts of the Secure Jobs, Better Pay laws come into effect.

These laws were passed by the Albanese Labor Government at the end of last year after tireless campaigning by workers in unions.

The new laws today will help unions negotiate higher wages.

During a cost-of-living crisis, our ability to collectively bargain for better pay and more secure jobs is crucial.

Workers in Australia have faced a decade of wage freezes under the former Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government. This collapse in workers’ wages was the deliberate objective of the Liberal-National parties: suppress wages while allowing CEO bonuses and corporate profiteering to skyrocket.

The new laws that come into effect won’t magically increase pay.

To do that requires strength in numbers and solidarity. By coming together, workers in their union will now have a stronger ability to negotiate with employers.

That’s why the most impactful thing you can do to help increase your pay, the pay of your coworkers and the pay of workers across Australia is to join your union.

The union movement is made up of almost 2 million workers, using our collective bargaining power to make work better for us all.

Today’s new laws are important, but we know there’s still more work to be done. Big businesses are used to exploiting loopholes in the law to lower wages and make jobs less reliable.

There’s still a lot of those loopholes that we need to close, and the union movement will keep campaigning to ensure they are closed.

The best way you can support our campaign to win a pay rise for Australia today is to join your union and be a part of our movement for change.