Futures Network

A place for union insights and innovation

The ATUI holds Futures Network meetings throughout the year, bringing unionists together to share knowledge on best practice in organising, campaigning, and growth and adopt better ways of supporting union members and workers.

All affiliates are encouraged to nominate officials or staff members with responsibility for new projects and innovation to attend these meetings on their union’s behalf.

UPCOMING MEETINGS

Details on topics and presenters to come throughout the year.

All meetings are in AEST/AEDT.

February

6 February | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

March

6 March | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

April

10 April | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

May

15 May | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

June

19 June | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

July

24 July | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

August

21 August | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

September

25 September | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

October

16 October | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

November

27 November | 1:00pm to 2:30pm

PAST MEETINGS

Recordings and resources from 2024 Futures Network meetings can be found in the ATUI Library.

New Digital Tools

8 February

Over the course of 2023, new and innovative tools and technology were developed by affiliates and TLCs to support union campaigns. In this workshop, we looked at some of the tools built for Unions for Yes, which could have ongoing application in digital campaigning across the movement.

Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) created a ‘Voice Bot’ (and associated tools) to scale digital communications on the Voice campaign. Through AI and automations, VTHC had 191 conversations through their chatbot and 1,500 conversations on Messenger (approximately 80% automated).

Similarly, the Unions for Yes campaign landing page by the ACTU digital team utilised several tools and programs that could be deployed to campaign sites in the future, including a ‘Pledge Your Support’ tool and a ‘Social Media Photo Frame’ tool.

Presenters:

Edwina Byrne, Communications and Media Lead, VTHC
Blair Wigley, Digital Development Lead, ACTU

A New Look at Union Power

14 March

In 2023, Professor Anthony Forsyth launched his book on new forms of union activism: The Digital Picket Line. We heard from Anthony and Alison Rudman, union leader and researcher, about their work on case studies of union strategy with a particular focus on how unions build and exercise power.

Presenters:

Distinguished Professor Anthony Forsyth, Graduate School of Business & Law, RMIT University
Alison Rudman, NSW Secretary, CFMEU – Manufacturing Division and PhD Candidate, University of Sydney Department of Work and Organisational Studies

Effective Onboarding of New Members

11 April

The ACTU Insights Team provided a summary of insights collected through their New Member Join Research program, conducted with new union members across the movement. The research is focused on understanding members’ initial onboarding expectations and experiences, at the one-month and three-month mark of joining.

The Insights team was joined on a panel by affiliates giving short outlines of the onboarding journeys they are implementing and their experiences so far.

Worker Surveys: What’s New?

9 May

For a long time, unions have used surveys of members and non-members for a number of purposes – to engage members in developing claims, in supporting public policy campaigns and lead generation. But how can recent developments supercharge how unions use surveys to generate growth and greater engagement and activism?

The May meeting of the Futures Network explored member surveys. We heard from a panel of unions on how they are making the most of them, including the systems and platforms that underpin these initiatives. The ACTU Insights Team also introduced the ‘question library’: what it is, why it’s a good idea to use standard questions and how affiliates can access it.

Innovation and Growth Take-outs from Congress

8 August

Among the 30 workshops, 8 plenaries and 15 fringe events, the triennial ACTU Congress in Adelaide on 5 – 6 June 2024 included a huge number of valuable insights from the coalface of new and emerging developments in the workplace, and inspiring and innovative uses of tools and new thinking for organising and growth.

This meeting provided an opportunity to hear again from some of these presenters and their contributions to the future of work and new and innovative tactics and strategies to organise and win.

Presenters:

Craig McGregor, Secretary, Victorian Allied Health Professionals Association (VAHPA) – Emerging use of AI in health settings and its impact.
Dan Sherrell, Senior Climate and Energy Policy Officer, ACTU – Climate, jobs and just transition: issues, challenges, and what it might mean for union growth.
Caito Taylor and Kleo Cruse, Content Creators, ACTU – Spreading our message with vertical video and Tiktok.

Understanding Member Experience: Research for Retention

12 September

Not all workers are the same, and different members want different things from their union membership.

In this meeting, Dr Asma Quereshi took us through the approach and methodology of researching member experience at the United Workers Union and how it informs their retention strategies.

Presenter:

Dr Asma Qureshi, Research Analyst, United Workers Union

Innovation in a Large-Scale Industrial Campaign

10 October

ANMF Victoria is the largest branch of Australia’s largest union, and in recent decades has been one of the fastest growing.

The recently concluded Public Sector EBA campaign was massive in scale, including a highly successful Protected Action Ballot with over 50,000 members spread across 104 separate employers.

Megan Reeve from ANMF was the campaign lead for the 2024 public sector bargaining round and talked through some of the challenges and innovations over the course of the campaign and shared some of what they learnt.

Presenter:

Megan Reeve, Campaign Lead, Australian Nursery and Midwifery Federation

Campaigning for a living wage in Aotearoa NZ

7 November

Following the passage of the anti-worker/anti-union Employment Contracts Act in New Zealand in 1991, unions were searching for new ways to win decent pay for members. The NZ living wage movement was launched in May 2012 by then NZCTU leader, Helen Kelly, with the aim of building power in the community to win wage justice.

Lyndy McIntyre was active in the movement since the inception, working on living wage campaigns alongside unions and community allies. From 2015 to 2020, Lyndy was a community organiser employed by the living wage movement. Since the launch of the movement many thousands of low-paid workers have had pay rises of up to 30% as a direct result of living wage campaigns.

Lyndy has written a book about her experiences and what she learned: Power to Win: the living wage movement in Aotearoa New Zealand, and presented on the innovative approach of their model of campaigning and how they pressed case and built the power needed for low-paid workers to win.

Presenter:

Lyndy McIntyre grew up in the 50s and 60s in a time of relative prosperity in Aotearoa New Zealand. In the 70s she became increasingly active in left/progressive issues and her community. Lyndy learnt about unions on the job as a union delegate in the printing industry through the 1980s. In 1990 she started a 30-year working life in unions, with a short stint as a parliamentary press secretary, and briefly in Australia in working with the ACTU on the Your Rights at Work campaign.

In 2007 she was elected to Kāpiti Coast District Council. She served one term and decided that union work was more worthwhile. In 2015, she became one of two paid community organisers in Living Wage Movement Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2020, she left her paid role and began to write this story of the movement, while continuing her activism.