No one can say what the AWU did to improve conditions. The truth is the AWU did nothing.

Top female athletes take case to union:

Reporter: Heather Ewart



KERRY O'BRIEN: The economic gulf between men's and women's sport in Australia has been the source of simmering resentment for some time, amongst the women at least. Now, in an effort to improve the lot of players at all levels, the company's top netballers have turned to the Australian Workers Union for help. It's a high profile coup for the union at a time when the movement as a whole struggling to maintain membership and it's a mark of determination by the elite players in Australia's highest participation sport. The union sees more opportunities in other sports and that's made administrators nervous. Heather Hewitt reports

"In her 100th test match, Liz Ellis".

LINDSAY CANE (CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NETBALL AUSTRALIA): We're talking about the best athletes in the world in this sport. We're talking about women who are equally committed, as equally talented in their own field as any professional male athlete.

BILL SHORTEN (AUSTRALIAN WORKERS UNION): These women train for nine, 10 months of the year. They put in, on average, 25 to 30 hours on top of holding down full-time study or another job.

HEATHER HEWITT: When Australia's netball team thrashed England last Friday night, team captain, Liz Ellis, made history as she starred in her 100th test. But history of another kind is also at play here. The elite players of the National Netball League have just taken the unprecedented step of joining the Australian Workers Union in search of better pay and conditions.

Do you feel as though you're trail blazers here?

LIZ ELLIS: No, I just feel as if we're netballers who wanna to contribute to our sport and we wanna see, you know, do our best to make the sport better for mainly the generations to come.

AMANDA BURTON (RETIRED MELBOURNE NETBALLER): I think we're the test case. Other sports can go like, look at women's cricket and softball and all these other like Olympic sports that can really generate and go places. So, look, I'm happy to be part of netball and the test case in this scenario.

HEATHER HEWITT: This is one test case that could have long-term consequences, not just for Australian Netball but for other women's sports and their administrations are on edge awaiting the next move. Men's sports too are taking more than a passing interest.

RON BARASSI (FORMER AFL COACH): Are they gonna to go out of a job for the day, or go on strike? I don't know.

BILL SHORTEN: When you look at it, the level of commitment that elite Australian women athletes put in, I think they need collective bargaining; they need union representation; they need player associations.

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2005/s1313768.htm

For example, when a new Agreement is negotiated in a workplace, by a union, all workers at that particular site receive the pay increases and conditions contained in that document - not just the union members.

lee wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2016 at 11:57am:


Yes.

All workplaces.

If a union-negotiated Agreement is in place at a particular worksite, all employees are covered by that document - not just the paid up union members

Armchair_Politician wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2016 at 12:03pm:


No, I am 100% correct.  Try to focus.

If a union-negotiated Agreement is in place at a particular worksite, all employees are covered by that document - not just the paid up union members.

Try to concentrate on reading what I'm actually saying, rather than what you "think" I'm saying.

Armchair_Politician wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2016 at 12:35pm:


I am 100% correct.

If a union-negotiated Agreement is in place at a particular worksite, all employees listed in the document are entitled to the pay rises and conditions that have been negotiated - not just the paid up union members.

You are off on some tangent subject.

Try to focus.