Central Branch – a bigger, stronger, more influential Union

Decades-long wars on jobs by employers in our industries have dealt significant blows to some of the core, traditional sections of our Union’s membership.

Savage job cuts, unfair and insecure contracting models and technological advancement and disruption have significantly reshaped core sections of our industry.

To stay strong and influential in employer groups and their wider industries undergoing such massive change, we must also change the way we operate. Workers across all our covered industries must continue to have quality representation with a seat at the table.

To do this, significant resources must be diverted to growing our membership in these new and emerging employment areas of our industries – not only for the purpose of providing the income stream necessary to sustain the level of service currently enjoyed by members, but to improve those services whilst becoming a stronger and more influential industrial force.

So yesterday, in a historic joint meeting of the Committees of Management of the NSW/ACT, QLD and SA/NT Branches, the critical first steps were taken to combine our resources and our assets – to merge in to one.

A Central Branch which will operate under the administration of a single Committee of Management which will be fair, transparent and proportionally representative of the states and territories the current Branches represent, along with their respective industry group sections.

Centralising our membership and administration functions, our communications and systems management operations will instantly realise significant savings of members’ funds.

This will enable us to realign our current resources whilst making significant investments in membership growth. Putting more Officials on the ground across the three states and two territories allows us to better service our current members whilst ensuring those services and levels of representation are sustainable into the future by growing our membership and increasing our industrial influence.

We’re excited to share this news with members. However, this is one of the biggest and most significant changes our Union will witness in a generation – so there’s a lot of work ahead of us to ensure we get it right. We will be sure to share more information with you as our plan develops.

Until then, rest assured that the blueprint we are developing for your Central Branch will guarantee postal, telecommunications and information technology workers across NSW, the ACT, Qld, SA and the NT access to a bigger, stronger, more influential Union that will be financially viable for many generations to come.

Yours in Unity,