The United Workers Union that is set to emerge from the amalgamation of United Voice and the NUW will have a "radical" structure that does away with state branches and instead adopts internal union "electorates" and sectoral organising.
The Australian Federation of Air Pilots has revived an application to expand its rules to allow it to retain members who move to Qantas mainline, after the FWC a year ago rejected it because of a technical error.
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.
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.
The AWU is developing a "strategic alliance" with the TWU and the SDA to cover the agricultural supply chain, aiming to build density while curbing worker exploitation.
A Queensland professional association that markets itself as a cheaper, apolitical alternative to unions is calling on the FWC to force a major employer to seat it at the same table during bargaining meetings, ahead of its planned expansion by the end of the year.
The FWC has further clarified the circumstances in which the signatures of a majority of workers can compel an employer to bargain with a union, finding that inviting employees to add their names to a petition occasionally left in an unlocked car did not reduce its force.
A lawyer representing five labour hire fruit pickers who withdrew an underpayments test case after winning a $150,000 settlement says he would welcome a "global settlement" for other claimants, while the employer accuses the NUW of funding the litigation in an effort to extend its patch.
