Resource
Futures Network: A New Look at Union Power
Distinguished Professor Anthony Forsyth (RMIT College of Business and Law, author of The Future of Unions and Worker Representation – The Digital Picket Line) and Alison Rudman (Secretary, CFMEU Manufacturing NSW and PhD candidate, University of Sydney) talk about their work on case studies of union strategy, with a particular focus on how unions build and exercise power.
Generation Z: Understanding the Next Generation of Workers
ACTU Virtual Organising Conference 2020 Speakers: Louise Loriaux (QTU), Kelly Creedon (QTU), Hannah Herrmann (Young…
Can unions use AI and ChatGPT to grow or lift capacity?
15 November 2024 This workshop, the third in a Futures Network series on AI, explored…
Informal Workers: From Atomised Objects to Collective Subjects
University of Sydney, Wednesday 19 July 2023 This workshop organised jointly by the Sydney Employment Relations…
Effective Onboarding of New Members
The ACTU Insights Team provided a summary of insights collected through their New Member Join…
Futures Network: What is AI? Outline and example of its impact in the creative and information industries
Wednesday 11 October 2023, 3:00pm Rapid advances in AI and machine learning and its application…
Futures Network: New Digital Tools – AI chat and more
Over the course of 2023, new and innovative tools and technology were developed by affiliates…
Futures Network: AI and algoritmic management
Wednesday 13 September, 10:30am-12:00pm AI is taking the world by storm, and revolutionising the world…
Union Believers Codex
The Union Believer Codex is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about…
Retention Playbook
The Retention Playbook has been developed as part of a member retention research project which…
Remembering the Pilbara Strike, 1946-1949
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this webpage does include the images…
ACTU Insights Standard Question Library
The Standard Question Library contains questions that are commonly used by the ACTU when collecting…
Innovation in a large-scale industrial campaign: ANMF Vic public sector EBA
ANMF Victoria is the largest branch of Australia’s largest union, and in recent decades has…
Campaigning for a living wage in Aotearoa NZ
Futures Network Recording: 7 November 2024 Following the passage of the anti-worker/anti-union Employment Contracts Act…
Growth Battles to be Won
ACTU Virtual Organising Conference 202016-20 November 2020 What are the battles that need to be…
Recruiting Students to Union Membership
Whether it be targeting students at university or those about to enter their first apprenticeship, this session covers how unions have successfully organised young workers as they undergo education and training for their chosen profession.
Use it or Lose It: Education and Development of Delegates in Australian Unions
Based on interviews in 2022 and 2023 with educators, organisers, and union secretaries and assistant…
Delegates are Diamonds: Learning from Union Delegates’ Experiences in Australia
Many Australian unions are addressing the challenge of declining union membership by shifting their priority…
Converting Student Members to Full Members (Webinar)
Presenters included: Cameron Ritchie, Digital Communications Officer at NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association Several union…
Marketing Automation for Unions
Thursday, August 27, 2020: 3 pm – 4.30 pm AEST How can unions use marketing…
Organising Migrant Workers: Lessons Learnt Before and After Covid-19
Thursday, August 20, 2020: 3 pm – 4.30 pm AESTChaired and introduced by Matt Kunkel,…
Data Campaigning, New Member Onboarding and Automated Member Journeys
Blair Wigley, Digital Development Officer and Anthony Bieniak, Digital Campaigner, worked in the CFMEU National Office…
An approach to member journey mapping for the union movement
Not all members are the same – so how can thoughtful research and building personas…
Unfinancial Members Calls
A new union secretary wants to start calling her unfinancial and resigned member calls. What…
Introduction to Digital Campaigning: An essential guide every union needs to get a winning online campaign started
Introduction Everything your union needs to take an online campaign from start to win. This…
Conviction Politics: multimedia resource
Introduction Conviction Politics is an international digital history project exploring the impact of radicals and…
Organising with 2020 Vision: Case Studies of New Approaches to Union Growth and Capacity Building
Introduction During 2020 Australian unions have shared many of their projects which have been presented…
Noonkanbah Protest
From 1979 to 1980 Indigenous workers at the Noonkahbah Pastoral Station in the Kimberley led…
How Unions helped build Superannuation
Watch Video Read Article Why are unions so insistent on defending superannuation – and why…
The 1957 Palm Island Strike
Watch Video Read Article In June, 1957, seven Indigenous men and their families on Palm…
How Unions Won the Right to Annual Leave
Watch Video Read Article Annual leave can seem like a right that has always been…
Remembering Bob Hawke
Watch Video Read Article Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister and President of the ACTU, passed…
Emma Miller: Remembering a Union Hero
Watch Video https://vimeo.com/user10068028/review/767951596/3184b9c206 Read Article Today we remember the legendary union activist and leader Emma…
Australia’s First Nation-wide Union Meeting and the Foundation of the Australian Council of Trade Unions ACTU
Watch Videos Video – When was the first national union meeting? Video – Foundation of…
A Short History of Unions taking Action for Equal Pay!
Watch Video Read Article 31 August is Equal Pay Day – a day that draws…
Jennie George becomes the first woman elected ACTU President
Watch Video Read Article In September 1995, Jennie George became the first woman to be…
The ACTU’s 1941 Equal Pay Conference
Watch Video Read Article On 2 September 1941, unionists gathered at Melbourne’s Trades Hall for…
Henry Lawson: The Workers’ Poet
Watch Video Read Article Today we are commemorating Henry Lawson, who in the late nineteenth…
Brian Manning: A Life in the Struggle
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following post may contain…
The Harvester Judgement and the Basic Wage
Watch Video Read Article On 8 November 1907 HB Higgins, the President of the Commonwealth…
“Pig Iron Bob” and the 1938 Port Kembla strike
Watch Video Read Article On 15 November 1938, dockers at Port Kembla (near Wollongong), members…
1963: The ACTU backs the campaign for wage equality for First Nations workers
WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the following post may contain…
Union solidarity with East Timor
Watch Video Read Article In 1999, East Timor was in flames. On August 30, the…
The 1891 Shearers’ Strike
Watch Video Read Article This week we remember the Shearers’ Strike of 1891, a defining…
West Gate Bridge Collapse in 1970
Watch Video Read Article Today we commemorate one of the worst industrial disasters in Australia’s…
The Gurindji Strike, 1966
Watch Video Read Article WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are warned that the…
Stories of Hope & Change: Muriel Heagney
Watch Video Read Article Times are tough right now, and it can be easy to…
Big Facts With Van Badham
How Is Unemployment Deliberate? We’re often told that unemployment is the result of laziness –…
Zelda D’Aprano’s Equal Pay Protest
Read Article Zelda was born in 1928 and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of…
The 1916 Campaign against Conscription
Watch Video Read Article On the 28th of October, 1916, the union-led campaign against conscription…
Why Nelson Mandela Thanked the Australian Union Movement
On the 25th of October, 1990, Nelson Mandela delivered a thank you speech to the…
The Metal Workers win the 38-hour week
Watch Video Read Article On 8 December 1981, unionists in the metal industry voted to…
The 1972 Equal Pay Case
Watch Video Read Article On 21st Dec 2021 we celebrated an important milestone in the…
1936 Maritime Strike by Torres Strait Islander Workers
Watch Video Read Article In January 1936, a Maritime Strike was launched by by Torres…
How Unions helped build Medicare
Watch Video Read Article Medicare wouldn’t exist without the union movement. On 1 February 1984, Medicare…
The Campaign for Asbestos Justice and Workers’ Compensation
Introduction February 8, 2007, was a major milestone in the ongoing. On that day, the…
Remembering Edna Ryan: Champion of Equality
Introduction After a lifetime campaigning for equality for women workers, Edna Ryan passed away on…
Australian Unions win Maternity Leave – 1979
Watch Video Read Article Introduction Trade unions have a long and proud history of campaigning…
The Power of Union Learning: A Snapshot from the ‘70s
Introduction In 1977, hundreds of shop stewards, from every corner of Australia, wrote letters to…
Maritime Union of Australia MUA: Here to Stay! The 1998 Waterfront Dispute
Watch Video Read Article In April of 1998, the Patrick Stevedores corporation sacked all of…
21 April 1856 – Melbourne Stonemason’s take action for the 8-Hour Day
Watch Video Read Article On 21 April in 1856, building workers in Melbourne took strike…
The Origins of May Day
Watch Video Read Article The first of May has long been a day of celebration…
Tribute to Tom McDonald: A Lifetime Winning for Workers
“When it comes to the living standards of working people I know this: without Tom…
The First Sydney Mardi Gras – and the Hidden History of LGBTIQA+ Unionists!
Watch Video Read Article On Friday 24 June we celebrate the anniversary of the first…
60th Anniversary of the Labour History Society
Guest post by Bobbie Oliver (Federal Vice President ASSLH; President of Perth Branch, ASSLH). 2022…
Laurie Carmichael – A Legendary Unionist
Introduction I first came across Laurie Carmichael in November 2020. Desperate to meet the looming…
Rise! Empowering Australian Workers through the Collective Spirit and Collaborative Energy of Unions
Introduction The ‘Rise!’ discussion paper provides new insight into how unions can adapt to the…
Masterclass for Activists: Ideas to Educate, Inspire and Change the World
Introduction This Masterclass series will inspire, educate and assist activists to become workplace and community…
War on the Water Front: Australian Waterfront Dispute 1998 [Videos – Short History & Documentary]
The Australian waterfront dispute of 1998 or “The Patrick’s Dispute” as it’s widely known as…
Idea Framing, Metaphors, and Your Brain – George Lakoff
Introduction UC-Berkeley Linguistics Professor George Lakoff discusses how idea framing and metaphors contribute to shaping…