Results of the recent elections for branch council and senior officer positions in the Australian Education Union Victoria branch were released on October 29. The incumbent union leadership was challenged by the Teachers Alliance, a rank and file group of AEU members that campaigns for an active and democratic union.
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Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering, which makes about 40% of Australia’s wind turbine towers, has indicated it may need to lay off 150 staff because of lack of work.
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More than 200 people, many from the Tamil community, attended a public meeting at Monash University on November 10 called “Sri Lanka: Human rights issues and media representation”.
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On a 35-degree day, community services workers in not-for-profit organisations mobilised from across Victoria to call for equal pay. The Australian Services Union, which covers the workers, estimated almost 4000 people rallied.
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The price tag for the desalination plant planned for Wonthaggi has increased from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion.
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Police harassment of Melbourne’s Indigenous community will likely increase as a result of a new law banning public drinking in the City of Yarra. The City of Yarra includes the suburbs of Fitzroy, Richmond and Collingwood.
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A vibrant and noisy crowd of about 300 women rallied at the State Library in Melbourne to demand an end to violence against women.
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A lively rally of 1000 people marched through Yarraville Village on October 24, demanding the reinstatement of their local high school. The school serviced the Seddon, Kingsville and Yarraville area.
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On October 26, 150 people rallied at Federation Square to demand the Australian government accept the 78 Sri Lankans asylum seekers currently moored off Indonesia’s Riau Islands.
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The Ampilawatja walk-off national speaking tour is spreading the word about life under the Northern Territory intervention and the Aboriginal elders who have walked off their community in opposition.
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Every three years the Australian Education Union (AEU), which covers teachers and other eduction workers in government schools, holds elections for all union representatives in the four sectors (early childhood, primary, secondary and TAFE). The elections include all senior officer positions and the AEU state branch council.
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With seven boatloads of asylum seekers intercepted in September, Australia’s Christmas Island detention centre is fast filling up. It now holds 677 detainees.