So the distribution workers get a national collective agreement in all but name, and pay parity between the three worksites. It was nice of the NDU to let Progressive spin this as though they won because there is no national collective agreement, when in real terms the bullying Progressive lost their battle to divide and conquer.

 

This industrial dispute has given me a tiny smidgen of hope that old-school union movements didn't completely die in the 1990s. For some time I've been worried that I'm some kind of nostalgic throwback, mentally chanting my 'power to the people' stuff while everyone else joined a libertarian party or something. I suppose it helped that Progressive is Australian-owned - there's nothing like a bit of 'we are the underdog!' nationalism to bring a community together. But I'm pleased that our country, recently labelled as one of the most business-friendly in the world by the OECD, still has some of that egalitarian worker-supporting spirit to share around. I think the workers support campaign raised over $200,000 in four weeks, in a country of four million people. That's pretty cool.