21 September 2022
Many of us will take time out this weekend to enjoy a great Aussie tradition – namely the Australian Rules football grand final: Sydney v Geelong.
Another great tradition is, of course, the actual weekend itself - this month being the 75th anniversary since unions won the first 40-hour week and two-day weekend in Australia.
Australian Unions tells us that when we fought for and won the first weekend, the business lobby and conservative politicians called a two-day weekend an ‘unnecessary and dangerous experiment’.
“Almost 75 years later, big business executives, lobbyists and right-wing politicians still think giving workers the rights to decent lives and fair pay is unnecessary,’’ AU says.
“Unions believe that when you want things to change for the better, you can drive that change through strength in numbers. The union movement's mission is to build a better future for all working people and the community.
“Just as we won the weekend, the minimum wage, superannuation, paid annual leave, sick leave and parental leave and much more – we're taking real action today to ensure workers have decent wages and secure jobs’’.
The ANMF (SA Branch), with the power of 23,000 members, continues to fight for better wages and working conditions for nurses, midwives and care workers.
“In our previous Public Sector Enterprise Agreement we achieved three years of consecutive wage increases following negotiations with the Government - against a backdrop of wages being frozen interstate,’’ ANMF (SA Branch) CEO/Secretary Adj Associate Professor Elizabeth Dabars AM said.
“This year we are urging the new State Government to commit to further wage increases to offset the rising cost of living and to appropriately acknowledge and reward the crucial care nurses and midwives provide to the community.’’
In the past financial year the ANMF (SA Branch) has achieved 24 aged care and private sector agreements with wage increase outcomes.
To quote social justice advocate Dr John Falzon OAM who presented at our Annual Professional Conference a few years ago: “No progressive social change that I can think of (including workers’ rights) has come from above (government).
“They come from ordinary people on the ground … always a collective movement under the guiding star of struggle and hope’’.
The eight-hour working day was actually won by Victoria’s stonemasons in 1856. On April 21 that year they downed tools and walked off the job, protesting a lack of action on their demands for reduced working hours. They not only achieved an unexpected victory but also won the same wage they had previously been paid for 10 hours’ work.
Many other workers were required to work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.
It was the first of a long, hard-fought series of victories that led to Australia having one of the most progressive labour environments in the world by the early 20th century.
Initially only a minority of workers, mainly in the building trades, won the eight-hour day. Most workers, including women and children, generally worked longer hours for less pay.
The fight for working conditions continued throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.
On 8 September 1947 a long union campaign to reduce the working week to 40 hours was victorious, despite the objections of the business lobby and conservative politicians.
On that day, the Commonwealth Arbitration Court ruled that from 1 January 1948 the 40-hour, five day, working week would begin, with two days off from work.
This was the start of the weekend.
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Story sources: Australian Unions, The History Channel/National Museum of Australia/Maritime Union of Australia