VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
(Above: warehouse workers source: www,afr.com)
Labor hire warehouse workers and government support services workers such as cleaners, orderlies and food service workers have won significant wage increases and improvement in working conditions in 2025.
With the support of their Unions, workers have adopted the correct strategies and tactics appropriate to the specific conditions of their workplaces and industries to win.
In warehousing, labor hire workers in both the United Workers Union and the SDA used the Same Job, Same Pay Fair Work Act new legislation to win pay rises of up to 46% and up to $30,000 per year per labor hire worker. They also won direct employment with large employers such as Asahi Beverages and Australian Pharmaceuticals who for years had used labor hire in their large warehouses. For many of these workers, the wage increases meant the difference between facing homelessness or choosing between paying the rent or feeding their families three meals a day.
In the government sector, support services workers in the public hospitals have won direct employment in the ACT through a long political grass roots campaign while in South Australia support services workers in the public hospitals in the capital city of Adelaide and in major country regions took various forms of industrial action over a long period of time to win a minimum of 24% wage increases over three years as well as maintaining wage parity for hospital services workers still provided by large multinational contractors like ISS and MSS.
These workers and their Union, United Workers Union, lasted the distance in a protracted struggle and made use of the fact that the state Labor Government wants "industrial peace' leading up to the March 2026 state election.
What all these workers achieved is way above the annual Award wage increase from "UnFair Work Commission" which hovers between 3% and 4% per year usually. These workers also won far in excess of the average annual wage increase across the private and public sector enterprise agreements. According to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the average annual wage increases for all industries enterprise agreements as at June 2025 was 3.8%.
This average figure of 3.8% is calculated from the 8,838 federal enterprise agreements covering about 2.1 million workers. There are many more workers paid on minimum Award rates.
Where workers unite and struggle and are organized, they can win and learn that if you don't fight you lose.