For everyone From your branch secretary: Turning our values into action
Every three years, at ACTU Congress, more than a thousand delegates from every affiliated union in the country gather in one place to collectively craft a vision for the future that working people want to build. This year’s Congress was the first to be held in person since 2018.
A lot has happened in the six years since that last in-person event. The ACTU Congress 2024 was an opportunity to be reminded of the fact that working people carried the country through the pandemic. Educators were among the essential workers forced to rapidly adapt to the evolving situation. Our members showed up every day to ensure that students stayed safe, connected, supported and engaged during a time of unprecedented crisis.
This year’s theme of ‘Solidarity: Values into Action’ reflects the nature of our times: building our movement to improve workers’ lives, taking action on climate change, dealing with artificial intelligence, and our ongoing responsibility to tackle racism in the workplace and beyond.
We also celebrated the union movement’s achievements over the past few years, having secured some of the biggest victories for workers’ rights in a generation. The AEU is already utilising the legislative changes that give workers across the country much greater access to collective bargaining and other improvements to rights and protections at work.
Led by First Nations unionists, Congress reflected on the campaign for a Voice to Parliament. Although the outcome was not what we had hoped and fought for, we have not wavered in our commitment and solidarity with First Nations Australians for Voice, Truth, and Treaty. A resolution was passed in support of incorporating racism as a psychosocial hazard and ensuring that it is included in all union health and safety training.
The AEU is represented on the ACTU Executive as the third largest union in Australia.
Held in South Australia for the first time – the first state to grant women the right to vote and allow women to stand for parliament – the Congress also celebrated major wins for women such as 10 days paid family and domestic violence leave, Same Job Same Pay legislation, stronger equal pay laws, and the requirement for gender equity reporting. Other gender-related issues discussed at Congress included reproductive rights, paid parental leave, and flexible work.
Superannuation was also a major focus. With $3.9 trillion housed in Australian super funds, our union-won superannuation scheme is economic democracy in action. Super balances belong to Australian workers, and we should continue to value the system that promotes equal representation of unions and business on superannuation company boards.
It is rare to have a body like the ACTU, which represents all affiliates across Australia’s union movement. The AEU is represented on the ACTU Executive as the third largest union in Australia. Our affiliation with the Victorian Trades Hall Council and the ACTU provides a unique opportunity to pool industrial and campaign resources and strategise collectively with the AEU’s other state and federal branches and the broader union movement.
EI World Congress
Another important event, the 10th Education International Congress, will be held in July 2024 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the theme: ‘Growing our unions, elevating our professions, defending democracy’. The AEU, along with 386 other member organisations, is an affiliate of Education International (EI), the global peak body for education unions around the world, with more than 32 million members.
The creation of EI in 1993 was a critical advance for global education trade unionism. It created a democratic body uniting education unions and professional associations around the world and has become the leading voice for education workers and the teaching profession globally. Susan Hopgood, who in 2006 was the first woman ever elected as federal secretary of the AEU, is the current president of Education International.
As always, the AEU will use this event as an opportunity to hear from the education community around the world, and to continue to build a strong shared commitment to high-quality education for all and promote the working conditions of the profession everywhere. In everything we do, the AEU is committed to turning our values into action.
