At its national conference last week, the Australian Services Union (ASU) elected Brisbane delegate and Socialist Alliance member Margaret Gleeson as national “Delegate of the Year”. She received the award from Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney at the National Conference dinner.
"I was very proud to receive this award", she told Green Left Weekly, "but I see it most of all as a tribute to the ASU Queensland activists who through their hard work put gender pay equity on the political and industrial agenda in that state."
In May 2009, the Queensland Industrial Commission granted pay rises of between 18% and 40% in recognition of the historic undervaluing of community work, overwhelmingly done by women workers.
The ASU is now running a similar campaign to spread the gains of the Queensland case nationally. If successful, it will begin to reverse the widening gender pay gap in Australia.
Gleeson said: "The ASU's gender equity campaign is a good example of what unions should be doing. Extend the example to other serious issues in workplace, like the miserable minimum wage and the threatened loss of OHS standards, and we can rebuild the support unions have lost among many working people."