ACTU Congress 2018
Around one thousand delegates representing workers from every industry and sector in Australia attended the ACTU Congress at Brisbane Convention Centre on Tuesday 17th July 2018 & Wednesday 18th July 2018.
This is the largest and most important gathering of Australian Unions and it sets the Union agenda for the following three years. The Congress also elects the leadership of the ACTU along with other office–holders for the next term.
Delegates debated and voted on policies regarding the workplace, rights and campaigns to improve wages, conditions and the standard of living for Australian workers and their families.
Conference guest speakers included Sally McManus ACTU Secretary, Michelle O’Neill, newly elected ACTU President, Alexandra Palaszczuk, Queensland Premier, Bill Kelty former ACTU Secretary, Jenny George, first woman ACTU President, Sharan Burrow, General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and a former President of the ACTU, Greg Combet, former ACTU President and member of Parliament, union officials and rank and file members.
The over arching theme of the congress was directed at addressing the need for unions to build power and mobilise to shift the balance of power towards working people locally and globally to achieve a fairer society with greater equity for all.
A number of unions addressed congress and show-cased campaigns that they had been running to deal with issues that not only affected their members but working people nationally and globally. For example:
SDA (Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association) ‘No-one Deserves a Serve Campaign’ to encourage employers to take customer harassment of employees as a serious health and safety issue and to raise awareness in the community of concerning levels of abuse being directed at retail workers.
Hospo Voice Wage Theft Campaign