Following on from its wins at Sydney and Melbourne independent bookstores, RAFFWU is leading strikes and work bans at Berkelouw Books and Harry Hartog, where it says workers remain on a small-cohort 2012 "zombie" agreement that the union says pays "poverty wages" and should never have been approved.
The FWC has rejected an AMWU bid to bargain for a standalone agreement for maintenance workers at BHP's WA iron ore operations, saying any negotiation difficulties are due to the "brevity" and "paucity" of meetings and not that BHP has focused too much on its larger production worker population.
The Offshore Alliance and ETU are up in arms after Bechtel warned them that unless they drop their "intractable" 30% wage demands for the Pluto Train 2 Project by Monday, it will bar them from bargaining meetings and deal only with the AMWU and CFMEU.
Victoria's Catholic school teachers and support staff have rejected a non-union agreement offer, while the IEU says support is growing for its application for a single interest bargaining authorisation through which it is seeking to secure a statewide deal.
The IEU has filed a "historic" single interest bargaining authorisation application to force Victoria's Catholic school bosses to negotiate a sector-wide deal, while the employer peak body is today awaiting feedback on an offer put directly to teachers and support staff.
Workers at Woodside's Pluto 2 LNG expansion in the Pilbara have overwhelmingly voted down head contractor Bechtel's proposed agreement, while Rio Tinto's Paraburdoo iron ore workers are set to receive a pay rise, announced shortly after unions kicked-off their majority support campaign.
The Western Mine Workers Alliance is considering industrial action at BHP Iron Ore's South Flank and Area C sites in the Pilbara, after the company put forward a draft "baseline" agreement that fails to provide any annual increases, which unions claim is "extremely rare" in the sector.
The ETU's WA branch is pushing to bargain for a separate agreement for continuing electrical, instrumentation or plumbing workers at the massive Pluto 2 LNG expansion, to uncouple from employees who will be demobilised as the construction phase ends, and is urging workers to vote down a pay offer that "does not pass the pub test".
The NSWNMA has secured its first private sector IBD, after it agreed to a 16% pay rise over four years for Healthscope nurses and midwives, but remained at an impasse on annual leave provisions.
The MEAA has rejected an ABC deal that would have provided a 3% interim pay rise while prohibiting employees from taking industrial action for six-months while they push for 5.5% pay rises each year and a guarantee that AI will not replace human workers.
