In a decision that has piqued the interest of local unions, a US National Labor Relations Board majority has upheld a ruling that deploying a giant "Scabby the Rat" near neutral employers did not amount to an illegal secondary boycott.
The TWU has warned that food and fuel supplies across Australia could be "crippled" by striking truck drivers after members today rejected a new deal by Toll it claims would "obliterate" decent jobs.
In a novel use of the Corporations Act in an IR setting, logistics company DHL has secured an urgent interlocutory injunction to stop the UWU procuring alleged confidential information from about 60 shop stewards that might have given it a significant advantage in enterprise negotiations underway across the company's sites.
ACTU secretary Sally McManus says unions will throw their full support behind an indefinite strike at a Melbourne food plant, where workers received their last pay increase five years ago.
The Fair Work Ombudsman has begun Federal Court action against the CFMMEU and five union officials stemming from the bitter 2017-18 dispute at Glencore's Oaky North coal mine in Queensland, which included a seven-month lockout and picket.
Highly-automated stevedore Victoria International Container Terminal won an interim anti-industrial-action order late last week that halted an escalating MUA campaign that included a 36-hour protected strike due to begin on Sunday morning.
Coles has indefinitely locked out about 350 warehouse workers in Sydney's south-west in a continuing dispute with broader ramifications for future struggles over automation-driven warehouse consolidation and closures.
MUA members have overwhelmingly endorsed protected industrial action at the Port of Melbourne's "robo-terminal", as the union seeks to drag the automated stevedore towards more traditional industry working arrangements.
Aldi has again failed to rein-in the TWU over its long-running "safe rates" campaign, with a full Federal Court confirming that the union is not constrained by consumer law prohibitions on misleading or deceptive conduct.
While union members tend to drive decisions to apply for pre-strike ballot orders and take protected action, the voting itself is less democratic, according to a book exploring how the regulatory environment can compromise democratic processes.
