Will you march to change the rules?

Working Australians and their families across the country will be taking to the streets over the coming weeks in a significant escalation to the Change the Rules campaign — demanding more secure work and fair pay.

Events are planned in major cities and regional communities across Australia.

The events and subsequent campaign activities will represent the largest mobilisation of working people since the Your Rights at Work campaign more than a decade ago.

Many of the events will coincide with May Day celebrations, which mark International Workers Day. In NSW and the ACT, the following events have been planned:

NEWCASTLE
Sunday 29 April, 10 am, Hamilton Railway Station
May Day Parade

CANBERRA
Tuesday 1 May, 12:30, Corner Childers Street & University Avenue, Civic / Canberra City
May Day Rally

WOLLONGONG
Saturday 5 May, 10am, Lowden Square across from Wollongong Railway Station
May Day March and Rally

SYDNEY
Sunday 6 May, 11 am, Hyde Park North
UnionsNSW May Day Family Fun Day

Australian Unions have a six point plan to get working families ahead:

1. Convert the minimum wage into a living wage so no full-time worker lives in poverty. This would deliver an immediate pay increase to 2.3 million people.
2. End wage theft – make sure our workplace laws are changed to working people can recover stolen wages and superannuation and make sure there are disincentives for employers who break the law.
3. Awards need to move forward with community standards to stop the widening gap between wages in collective agreements and award minimums.
4. New bargaining rules to give workers more freedom and to make bargaining fairer. We need to re-balance the system so it is not stacked in favour of employers.
5. Restore penalty rates for millions of Australians to their pre-July 2017 levels and change the laws to stop governments or employers ever cutting them again.
6. Secure equal pay for women.

Can we afford to sit back and allow our rights to continue to erode? Will our sons and our daughters one day be asking us — why did we let this happen? How did we let it get so bad?

Big business has too much power, and they know that when working people join together we are unbreakable.

We need to stand up and fight to change the rules that are preventing working families from moving forward and I’m asking you — will you fight with us? Will you fight for your rights today, and for the rights of our children tomorrow?

I am encouraging all CEPU members who are willing to fight for a better, fairer country with rights at work we can be proud to leave to our children to make their voices heard at one of these many events across NSW and the ACT.

Yours faithfully,