Secretary's Message

Dear ASU Member

The past few months has been focussed on achievement, challenge and renewal.

On 10 November, your ASU and Prime Minister Julia Gillard made history.

Your ASU and the Federal Government have reached agreement on the ASU claim for equal pay for community sector workers and will now jointly take that position forward to the Full Bench of Fair Work Australia. After years of tireless campaigning by ASU members and months of conciliation in Fair Work Australia, the Federal Government has supported our claim.

In front of a packed and emotional room of ASU members, Prime Minister Gillard committed to equal pay for the community sector and supported the Queensland rates of pay won in the Queensland equal pay case in 2009 (and therefore wage increases of between 18 and 37%) for 200 000 community sector workers around the country and thousands of ASU members in the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Providing Fair Work Australia agrees with the joint position of the Federal Government and the ASU, every community sector worker in Australia will receive a significant pay increase and, after a forty year struggle, equal pay and, after a thirty year struggle, one single pay scale for every community worker in Australia.

Details of the agreement and how it will be implemented will shortly be sent to every ASU member in the community sector. We will be ensuring that ASU members have up to date information which will be key to opening up the door to equal pay.

We will be in workplaces across South Australia and the Territory talking with members and employers and asking every worker who has not yet got behind this historic work to join their Union the ASU.

By working together, ASU members have secured an historic achievement. Finally, community sector workers and the communities they support receive the recognition and value they deserve. Finally, we have taken a step towards a strong and healthy community sector, able to keep providing quality services to generations of Australians to come.

On 21 October, South Australia had a new Premier. We congratulate The Hon Jay Weatherill. Our Union has had a long and positive relationship with Premier Weatherill and have observed his strong, fair and compassionate leadership over many years. Premier Weatherill promises a new and different leadership style, focussed on listening to and engaging with community. The work that you as ASU members do across our State is key to a prosperous, sustainable and socially inclusive South Australia and we will work together to ensure the voices of ASU members are heard as the challenges ahead are addressed by the South Australian Government and community.

On 21 October, we were also very pleased to welcome Hon Ian Hunter as Minister for Communities and Social Inclusion, Minister for Social Housing, Minister for Disabilities, Minister for Youth and Minister for Volunteers. Ian has been an ASU member for seventeen years and has a long history of supporting our Union and championing progressive causes. He has been a tireless advocate for real social inclusion. His ministerial portfolio will see him working with a number of ASU members and we have no doubt that his style will also be one of collaboration, respect and determination.

On 29 October, ASU members in the Northern Territory and South Australia and across Australia professionally supported tens of thousands of passengers from around the globe in the face of one of the most hostile employer actions in our nation's history. Qantas's decision to ground our national airline and threaten to lock out a 38,000 strong workforce after just seven hours of action taken by workers in a six month period was disturbing. You can read more about this at "The spirit of Australia?" There is no doubt that this action has for many Australians cemented the view that the power global corporations and the extraordinarily well paid few within them is too great.

Qantas's actions and the political commentary around them also served as an important reminder of the need to continue to secure fair industrial relations systems ... as we head into Federal election mode over the next year and a half, industrial relations legislation will be an important consideration.

What we know from our 106 year history of working together is that it is only through being active and organised that we -

• achieve groundbreaking victories for whole industries and generations of workers to come, as we have done in the community sector;

• achieve the fair and positive agreements that we work together towards in commercial areas, in finance, in energy, in Local Government, airlines, the legal industry and IT; and

• fend off attacks on our rights, as we will continue to do in the large organisations like Qantas and as we will continue to do whenever an individual ASU member's right to respect and fairness is threatened.

In the meantime, I wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

Katrine Hildyard
SECRETARY