A small but effective union, which took inspiration from the Unite project in New Zealand, has made some gains for young previously unorganised retail and service employees in
Melbourne.

In the first part of the year Unite (Melbourne) uncovered pay scams and super-exploitation of international students by the 7-11 retail company. Eventually the Fair Work Ombudsman found that workplace laws were breached in more than a third of 56 Geelong and Melbourne 7-11 stores investigated.

Later in the year this union carried out a street-wide campaign on Brunswick Street (popular for food and shopping) which recruited good numbers of young workers and has so far resulted in minimum conditions such as time-and-a-half hours being enforced where they previously weren’t.

Visit www.unite.org.au for more info.