Stick Together Annie McLoughlin, James Brennan, Jiselle Hanna

Today we hear two stories that give us an insight into how Unions fit into ordinary workers lives. In the first we hear from Heidi, a plumber, who I met on May Day celebrations as she outlines her journey into a trade and her changing view on the role of unions in her working life. We then move to an interview with Martin Murphy, a CFMEU steward, as he outlines a serious incident and how the Union worked for a better outcome for the affected workers.

On this week’s episode of Stick Together, we look at the struggle for decolonisation in Kanaky with Nic Mclellan. Plus some union news from Australia and the world.

Today we go down to one of the Stop the Ports Rallies held across the country by Unionists for Palestine to highlight the need for Australia to cease aiding and abetting the war on Palestine. In Melbourne thousands covered first at Station Pier then Sandridge Beach in a community gathering emphasising that Unions are not just institutions but made up of the sum total of the individuals that are members. Running underneath the surface of this show of solidarity was the awareness that in NSW members of unions and peace activists are facing criminal proceedings under new draconian anti-protest laws in that state for protesting at Port Botany earlier in the year. 

On this week’s episode of Stick Together, we finally have an outcome at that ongoing struggle at DP World in a couple of states across the country, so we’ll have a chat to Aarin Moon, the Victorian State Assistant Secretary of the MUA. Also, a number of progressive trade unions moved a slate of pro-Palestine motions at the Victorian State Labor Conference over the weekend of 18 & 19 May. I spoke with one of the movers of that motion, Tony Picolo, the Victorian State Assistant Secretary of the AMWU.

Stick Together is a half-hour weekly show about workers rights and current affairs. On this week's episode host James Brennan brings us some union news from across the country. We hear about the reformation of the United Auto Workers union in the United States. As two organisers speak about how the union turned around the corrupt and conservative union into one fighting for workers rights and leading the largest strike in the industry in over 25 years.

Special May Day broadcast with featured speeches from the Sydney and Melbourne May Day rallies, as well as union news from Turkiye, Indonesia and Thailand.