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For workers who rely on minimum wages, the sheer cost of living doesn’t mean missing out on takeaway coffee or streaming services. Those things are already long gone. It means cutting back on basic needs because there’s nothing else left to cut.
Interest Rates Rise A couple weeks ago, the Reserve Bank of Australia increased interest rates for the ninth consecutive time. It was news delivered along with a grim warning. It wouldn’t be the last of such increases; there were several more to come. RBA Governor Phil Lowe sticks by his decision and is quick to remind…
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2023/02/20/rates-railroads-and-relief-for-refugees/
It’s a shocking figure that has gained massive media attention, making headlines in the ABC and the Guardian. Even The Australian understands that one in four Australian skipping meals means we need urgent reform.
Tasmanian workers earn on average $200 a week less than their counterparts on the mainland. That equates to a $10,000 year hole in Tasmanian pay packets.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/11/23/tassie-workers-demand-a-fair-pay-rise/
Most of us would take 2,332 years to earn the same amount as the highest paid CEO. We may as well live on different planets.
My abhorrent crime for which I am forking up well over a week’s pay was keeping my poorly insulated house warm through a bitter winter. I did this mostly for my baby daughter.
The workers that bring you the ‘Genius bar’ at Apple have made a clever move: they’ve joined their union.
Challenging economic times call for bold thinking. So how about this for an idea? Imagine if Australia had an economy that worked for people, rather than one that exploited them.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/08/15/an-economy-that-serves-workers-id-like-to-see-that/
If corporate profiteering is the Hollywood cowboy riding off into a sunset of success, then workers’ wages are the cacti left in the billowing dust.
“Despite being in a high inflation environment, despite seeing the costs of everything going up, those settings would ordinarily point towards workers being able to get a decent increase in their wages, what we see is more money going towards profit, less money going towards workers pockets instead,” Dan Walton said.
Huge corporations have chosen to pass on costs to customers rather than absorb them. In a similar fashion, the big oil and gas companies booked super windfall profits while Australian taxpayers have subsidised the bowser price of petrol. The vast majority of these profits head off-shore to overseas billionaires and hedge-funds.
We can’t afford to sweep profiteering under the rug while workers are told, once again, that their wages should decrease for the “health of our economy”.
“I want to be a leader for my community as well as people who are around my age group. I want to let them know, ‘You know what? Joining the union is really good. We need people like you’.”
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/08/03/union-members-speak-up-at-parliament/
The interest rate rise of 0.5 percentage points, which brings the cash rate to 1.85 per cent, announced on Tuesday by the Reserve Bank of Australia will worsen the cost-of-living crisis for workers.
The RBA know it well. Profits, not wages, are the key driver of Australia’s inflation break out.
The evidence is in: this cost-of-living crisis could have been prevented if corporate giants had put people over profit.
“What we need in this country is the cost of living crisis addressed through the wage packet. We need price caps on energy, and we need profits taken down a peg or two, because the people at the top of the economy, they’re having a disco”
How would you like to live like a CEO for a day? We’re certainly putting our hands up.
Workers keeping NSW roads safe and functioning are too important to be allowed to strike – but not important enough to warrant a decent pay rise.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/07/07/essential-transport-workers-face-a-real-wage-cut/
There are plenty of reasons to celebrate the 5.2% wage increase minimum wage workers will see appear on their pay slips in a matter of days. But it seems big business and conservative politicians aren’t too keen to give workers their fair share.
The lines snaking along the roads outside Foodbank’s warehouses in Dandenong and Epping on Melbourne’s suburban edge say more than any politician or pundit could about the cost-of-living crisis working people are facing.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/07/05/foodbank-besieged-as-cost-of-living-crisis-bites/
As many Australians workers feel the cold bite of winter, they’re struggling to understand why they might be facing blackouts and power cuts while trying to stay warm.
“If you said workers should continue to have real wage cuts and pay for an inflation rate they didn’t cause, I think that’s morally bankrupt,” said Sally McManus.
We know that if we want to see real wage increases, we need more than talk. We need to take action.
You may have seen a few memes lately about Scott Morrison and a $1 pay rise – and there’s good reason.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/05/20/how-1-per-hour-can-help-close-the-gender-pay-gap/
Tomorrow, working Australians have the opportunity to raise their voices through the power of the ballot box and demand change.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/05/20/the-moment-is-now-to-change-the-government/
If you haven’t had the conversation already, it could be coming soon. Whether you welcome the request or not, your employer may ask for you to return to the physical workplace. But what if you don’t want to go back?
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/05/11/can-your-boss-force-you-back-into-the-workplace/
What does it take to make sure we don’t have to worry about being able to pay the bill at the supermarket or the petrol station? The simple answer: higher wages including an increased minimum wage.
Another rise in the cost of living is the last thing Australian workers need, but it is exactly what the Morrison government has delivered.
The RBA’s increase to the cash rate by 0.25 per cent to 35 basis points has spelled out bad news to workers already battling Morrison’s cost of living crisis.
For the first time this century, you will likely be heading to the polling booths with a real income lower than the last time you voted.
With the Federal Election fast approaching, Scott Morrison’s government is still missing in action in addressing the insecure work crisis.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/04/29/what-you-need-to-know-about-insecure-work/
The release of the 2022 first quarter inflation data has confirmed the worst real pay cut for working people this century.
Instead of supporting a real wage increase, Morrison and his big business buddies have refused to engage with the needs of struggling workers.
Australian workers are grappling with the triple whammy of the soaring cost of living, flat wages growth and the prevalence of precarious work. It’s a dangerous economic equation that has seen many workers tumbling through the trapdoor into unmanageable debt.
With flatlining wages, the rising cost of living pressures, and an uneven economic recovery from the pandemic, what does the 2022 Federal Budget mean for you?
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/03/30/what-does-the-2022-federal-budget-mean-for-you/
Funny that. After nine years of keeping wage growth low, the Coalition Government have suddenly realised that people with empty pockets aren’t so easily convinced with their economic wand-waving and empty gestures.
We have had nine years of wage stagnation under successive Coalition Government, and we are already struggling to keep up with the cost of living.
So when ACTU Secretary Sally McManus posed this question on Twitter on Thursday, the responses were eye-opening.
Australian workers don’t need a pay out, they need a pay rise, something that this government has steadfastly refused to make happen over the last nine years.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2022/03/28/dont-buy-morrisons-budget-bribes/
The numbers are in: you’ve copped a pay cut, and you might not even know it.
Years and years of government economic mismanagement have stacked up.
Insecure work, insufficient disability support, and stagnating wages have left workers with little hope of keeping up with daily prices.
We’re heading into a new era of work so if you’re feeling unsure about how to navigate a post-pandemic work environment, you’re not the only one.
Rising cost of necessities, low wage growth and future rate rises all causing financial stress.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2017/08/01/what-is-causing-us-financial-stress/
In the March edition of your Member Benefits Update find out about what’s happening in your state for International Women’s Day, you can join our FREE footy tipping competitions for union members, join the fight to keep penalty rates, register for the 2017 Mother’s Day Classic and grab some bargains with your special union member discount on a range of different products and services! Plus there’s another couple of fantastic DVDs to win.
https://www.australianunions.org.au/2017/03/02/member-benefits-update-march-2017/