Become a solidarity member today

UNITE is one of the only organisations in Australia promoting trade unionism amongst young people. We have a proud record of campaigning for workers rights especially in fast food and retail. We want this to continue.

But organising young workers is no easy task. We need all the help we can get. There are many things that you can do to help our work both big and small. Here is a brief list of our achievements in recent times. Judge for yourself as to whether we are an organisation worth supporting.

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UNITE has been made aware of an incident that occurred on Saturday night at the KFC on the corner of Watton and Bridge Streets in Werribee. A drunken customer entered the store and assaulted one of the workers. He also verbally threatened several others.

The usual procedure after such an incident would be to close the store and send the workers home. Injured workers should be able to seek medical advice and all workers on the shift should be provided with couselling.

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Video Dogs in Carlton has been forced to back pay over $4800 to its workers after UNITE revealed that the shop was paying young workers with DVD rental instead of wages.

After a full investigation by the Workplace Ombudsman, Video Dogs owner John Mallalieu has now been forced to stop his dodgy employment practices.

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From The Age newspaper in Victoria. August 16th 2008, by Sushi Das

The national workplace watchdog is conducting a blitz on 24-hour convenience stores in central Melbourne to see if workers, many of them overseas students, are being exploited.

The crackdown follows claims by UNITE, a fast food and retail workers union, that 7-Eleven stores are underpaying staff, with some earning as little as $9 an hour.

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UNITE has been informed of yet another example of young worker super-exploitation. This time it is convenience store 7-Eleven. Some workers have complained that they are only paid $9 per hour for late night and weekend shifts! Most of these workers are international students.

Do you have a 7-Eleven store near your house or workplace? If so please print out this leaflet and give it to the workers in the shop. If you can volunteer a couple of hours to visit 7-Eleven stores and let the workers know about the UNITE campaign please contact 93281555.

Below is the text of our 7-Eleven leaflet or click here to download the PDF.

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