Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Talking on the back of this year's May Day rally, United Voice's Erina Early says 2022 is the year of the worker fighting back

Transcript

Talking on the back of this year's May Day rally, United Voice's Erina Early says 2022 is the year of the worker fighting back · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now we know that yesterday was Labor Day and saw
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: many march the streets for workers right, but many many
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: were also marching the streets for fairer pay and conditions.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: We know that Darwin prison offices and fireies walked out
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of work for industrial action yesterday morning and they joined
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: hundreds of protesters for the annual Union and well May
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Day March. Now joining me on the line to tell
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: us a little bit more is the United Branch Into
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Branch Secretary Erina Early. Good morning to you.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Morning, Katie. How are you not too bad?
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Erina?
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: How was that turnout? Firstly for yesterday's Mayday March?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: It was absolutely amazing. It was such a great day.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Plenty of people there was it in the hundreds.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Oh, well over one hundreds. United Workers Union had over
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: two hundred. Yeah, we JOC had about nearly one thousand
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: workers marching yesterday.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: And Erina, was it all about you know, about what
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: May Day is usually about, you know, workers rights? Or
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: was it more about some of the can concerns that
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: our workers in the territory have got with this PayPhrase?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: It was a combination of both May Days about celebration
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: and also an opportunity for workers to send messages to government,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: to territory and to other groups as well.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: So you did see yesterday it was used as an
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: opportunity for the Correctional officer as part of their protected action.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: They used it to have a twelve hour work stoppage
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: and so they could attend the May Day march and.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Eron I they had that work stoppage. Our correctional officers
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: also fireries as I understand it, what drives them to
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: take that strike action.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: So correction Office and both Fiery are not happy with
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the four year wage increase at all, four year wage free. Sorry,
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: they're not happy with that. They won't accept it. They're
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: both very highly unionized work forces and they won't rollover
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and will be persuaded by the OCPE with dangling buckets
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: of cash.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: And they've got some serious concerns right now as well,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: don't they when it comes to their staffing levels and
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: their safety.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, corrections are at crisis level. As you know, we
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: had the fires and in Alice Springs with Rights and
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Alice Springs and the fires in Darwin. Still these haven't
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: been sorted. There's still no right shields for officers, there's
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: still no body armor. The damage is still visible, so
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: the officers have to walk past this every day. So
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: it's a reminder to them that the government doesn't care erin.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: What is going to happen in this space. I mean,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: can we expect further industrial action from our correction staff
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: given the fact that they feel as though they are
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: very unsafe on the job.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. This Thursday, Alice Springs are walking off the twelve
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: hours as well, and then after our springs this week
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: we're going to regroup with our delegates and members because
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: we are talking about rolling walk off right just.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: With corrections or is that going to be in other
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: areas as well?
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: So you've got corrections. Our firefighters can't walk off the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: job lock corrections because they're emergency services. So yesterday part
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: of their protected action was wearing uniforms. So we had
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: over seventy firefighters yesterday marching uniform because they're not happy
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: about the four year wage freeze either. And the fire
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: services in crisis too, whether aging appliances things like that,
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: the lack of training, etc. The possibility of volunteers starting
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: the remote stations, et cetera. There's a lot of that
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: to implode within the fire service. You see that coming
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: in the next couple of weeks, but also two Kateie,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: you've got Nilla Dulber Health Services. They walked out last week,
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: took to the street from Darwin because they weren't happy
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: with their enterprise agreement and the City of Darwin our
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: depot workers. Their protected action ballot were successful last week,
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: so we'll be meeting with members tomorrow and discuss which
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: actions they're going to be taking.
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Well, it sounds as though there's going to be a
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: bit of industrial action around the place. Potentially. Erin are
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: keeping contact with us and let us know when, and
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: I know that you know, for a lot of these workers,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: they don't actually want to disrupt things for Territorians, but
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: they're feeling as though it's their final option.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Katie, You've got a lot of upset workers. And
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: I think I've mentioned missed you before. If twenty twenty
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: two is really going to be a year of the
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: work of fighting back.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Well Erina early. We will talk to you again once
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: those meetings have happened, if that's all right, and find
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: out what's the next steps.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, Cat, I'll be in touch with it very very soon.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you you too, Thanks very much for your time
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: this morning,