The NDIS is in the news today, for all the wrong reasons.

These are opportunities to come together with other members in your local area to talk about Union campaigns, workplace issues and how we can build a fairer society together in Union.

These meetings are great opportunities to bring along your colleagues who aren’t in the Union yet to find out more about what we can achieve when we build a strong Union movement. 

We won Equal Pay on the ground, through organising and mobilising. We were determined and held a never say never attitude during our decades-long hard fought campaign.

Now members in women’s services are campaigning for universal access to paid domestic violence leave. The We Won’t Wait campaign also calls for stable and secure funding to women’s led services. 

Community and disability sector work is increasingly more complex and demanding and consequently, the set of skills and qualifications in our sector is also changing.

Nominate a colleague today for their union and sector activism!

• Do you know an ASU member in your workplace or sector that has inspired you to get involved in your union? 
• Someone who has been a leader not just of ASU members in the workplace but also in shaping our sector more broadly?
• Someone who has fought for better outcomes, funding or profile of the social and community services sector?

On Wednesday n a room full of ASU members The Australia Institute launched its report A Portable Training Entitlement System for the Disability Support Services Sector, authored by Drs Rose Ryan and Jim Stanford.

The Report was commissioned by our Union, coming out of last year's Disability Delegates Conference, when members came together to share their hopes for the National Disability Insurance Scheme and ideas on how we can make it the best it can be.

Delegates wanted access to ongoing training and recognition of the skills required to deliver the highest quality person-centred supports for people with disabilities.

A few years ago ASU members overwhelmingly voted to support marriage equality, but we must fight for equality with dignity and not have to have a divisive plebiscite that will create unsafe workplaces for LGBTIQ workers.

Not only is a plebiscite a waste of money (money that could be spent on other things like homelessness or domestic violence services) but it will also foster harmful and hurtful debate that could cost lives.

Around the country members at Mission Australia are currently voting to endorse a new enterprise agreement that will see considerable improvements in wages and conditions at Mission Australia. This is after months of successful campaigning by members in their workplaces to send a strong message to Mission Australia management that ASU members want to be treated with respect and have improvements in their conditions at work. 

Employers are looking to attack our conditions – reducing sleepovers and changing on-call. The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award sets out the minimum conditions for work in our sector. It is currently under review by the Fair Work Commission and employers are arguing for reducing sleepover entitlements, changing how on-call works and making it easier to change and cut hours for part-time workers.

Scott Morrison's Productivity Commission opens the door to multinational for-profit providers in family services, child protection, homelessness, domestic violence, mental health and drug and alcohol services

Family and community services like domestic violence services, mental health, and homelessness services are about to be opened up to multinational for-profit corporations to profit from if Scott Morrison gets his way!