United Voice and the NUW are pushing ahead with merger plans to create Australia's biggest blue-collar union, with almost 156,000 members and an organising model that seeks to tackle low-paid labour hire jobs as well as part-time and casual work.
A former TWU official has lost a bitter dispute with the union over his dismissal in 2014, which he claimed was motivated by his absence from work due to a back injury.
The TWU will today raise the spectre of nationwide airport and road freight strikes as it pursues "sector-wide rates" for 38,000 workers covered by 200 expiring enterprise agreements.
Long-serving leader of Together Queensland, Alex Scott, says the success of his team in union elections gives it a mandate to campaign for a stronger worker voice on climate change, while its goal to raise $5 million over years will help it fight "hostile" government attacks on the public sector.
The FWC has labelled a "fishing expedition" an attempt by the United Firefighters' Union to access a vast array of documents from the Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board, in an alleged dispute over budget cuts the union claims will negatively impact its members.
The CFMMEU's construction division says senior NSW officials at the centre of a new ABCC court action have denied alleged threatening conduct, such as warning a crane company to "agree with everything" in a deal as "you don't want your blokes offsite, equipment damaged, cranes wrecked".
A former Esso union delegate who was found to be unfairly dismissed for calling a co-worker a "f___ing scab" has failed to convince an FWC Full Bench that he should be reinstated.
In what is believed to be an Australian-first, the Victorian CFMMEU is seeking penalties of more than $4 million against four police officers and the civil construction giant McConnell Dowell for allegedly stopping union safety officials from inspecting "high-risk work" at a level-crossing removal project.
A senior FWC member who must redetermine Alcoa's bid to terminate its main WA deal has dismissed the AWU's contention that she is required to consider all appeal grounds afresh.
An employer association has begun probing the alliance between the AWU and the CFMMEU's MUA division that seeks to build membership in the offshore oil and gas sector, arguing that it creates a conflict of the interest for the organisers involved.
