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Michele O Neil's first taste for unionism was one she would never forget. She was only 14 years old and worked casual as a waitress at a club when her boss was badually harbading her.
"You're waiting for customers," she says. "It was when it was your supervisor that it was shocking."
As a young, vulnerable worker, she turned to her colleagues, fellow unionists, who sought to protect her and gave her the courage to stand up to her boss. Harbadment has stopped.
"That taught me very early the importance of not being alone and the workers stuck together – the fundamental principles of unionism being the collective power, I never forgot it because it made such a difference. On Tuesday, Ms. O. Neil, now 56, and National Chief of the Textile Workers' Union, was elected Chair of the Australian Council of Trade Unions at the Brisbane Union Convention, replacing the newly elected Labor MP Ged Kearney.
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Working with CUTA Secretary, Sally McManus, the Left Leader will lead an ambitious union campaign at the next federal election, calling for a complete overhaul of workplace laws .
Sectoral Negotiation, Advocacy Actions Employers cautioned the CUTA agenda – particularly its call for industry-wide bargaining and rights of strike – could see the return to the industrial chaos of the 1970s.
The "critical" sectorial bargaining
But Mrs. O Neil, says that sectoral bargaining rights are essential to fight the wage inequality . She believes that she is ready to make accusations as the textile industry is at the forefront of negotiations in supply chains and in a globalized economy.
Ms. O. Neil successfully led the chain wage collection campaigns and introduced global rights for homeworkers to be considered employees, even if they work under a payroll number. ;business.
"My experience has taught me that real power in these supply chains is often not the direct employer but the brand." Being able to have a sectoral bargain or supply chain where you have a chance to have everyone at the table, where you can really influence the outcome, is essential to do something about wages. that sectoral wage bargaining also encourages co-operation between unions and employers and that it can even be favorably received by companies.
"I have companies that tell me that they think it's very difficult.It's just that the rules of the game are not fair – because they're in a workplace where they're trading at the company level, they're feel cut by other companies that do not negotiate in some cases, vol. "
Proponents of the Family Union
The fate of Mrs. O. Neil at the head of the labor movement may have come from her family, she was the youngest of the five feminist girls, and his parents, "the idea of working and not joining a union would never have crossed their minds."
His father was an official of Canberra and his mother, who left the # 39, school at the age of 13, has held various jobs, ranging from factories to wrapping envelopes with wages of workers to the waitress in the parliament hall.
After his first getaway In the hospitality industry, Ms. O. Neil will develop a long history of helping vulnerable and poorly paid workers, ranging from working with homeless youth to managing a bank of cash machines. knitting in a textile factory and sowing labels.
After two years in the industry, she's already She joined the Australian Union of Apparel and Footwear as an organizer and rose through the ranks to become National Secretary
. She is also co-chair for the Asia-Pacific region of IndustriALL, an international union federation representing 15 million workers negotiating global labor standards with multinational corporations.
CFMEU
Most recently she became Vice President of the Union of Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy following the merger of her union with the controversial union earlier this year. She has had close ties with the CFMEU, particularly her manufacturing and forestry division, and her former longtime partner was the former Victorian Secretary of the Construction Union, Martin Kingham
. Mrs. O. Neil insists that "I am proud to come from TCFUA and CFMEU"
She claims that the problem is not the CFMEU, but the laws that prohibit action union, which she says is out of step with the developed world.
"It's a tough industry – the work done by [CFMEU] to protect security and conditions is an important job.What's wrong is that we have laws for to make the law as simple as to care for its members. "
No Interest in Politics
Ms. O. Neil joins a long list of CUTA presidents. of whom, like Jenny George and Ged Kearney, later made the move in the labor policy
But Mrs. O. Neil does not profess any desire to follow in their footsteps.
An active member of the left faction socialist of work, she had opportunities to be pre-selected for parliament in the past and said no.
"I have no interest in being a politician. I like to be a unionist. I am very happy to represent the members of the union, that is what fascinates me. "
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