Happy birthday ACTU – 94 years strong

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) turns 94 years old today.

That’s 94 years as the peak-body representing Australian unions, their members and families.

94 years of standing up for Australian workers, putting their interests front and centre of government agendas and fighting for worker rights – your rights.

In fact, since its creation in 1927 the ACTU has spearheaded some of the most fundamental workplace struggles in Australia’s history, winning important rights for all workers.

We’re talking decades of wage increases through the award systems and campaigns, safer workplaces, greater equality for women, improvements in working hours, entitlements to paid holidays and better employment conditions, the establishment of a universal superannuation system – and most recently, the JobKeeper wage subsidy that kept so many workers in their jobs during the pandemic.

Phew. Sounds exhausting, but even after 94 years, the ACTU has no intention of slowing down.

Right now, the ACTU is working towards a stronger, balanced and inclusive recovery – calling on the Government to address historic low wages, the surge in insecure work, the over-reliance on consumer spending, and the overall unevenness of our COVID recovery, as many sectors and millions of workers continue to struggle in the pandemic aftermath.

The best way you can support this vision for economic recovery? Join your union.