Solidarity spoke with United Workers Union members about the current union election
Nikki Toupin is a UWU delegate in early childhood education in Melbourne. She’s been in the sector for almost eight years.
Our membership is growing but it’s slow. That’s because the union doesn’t engage with members and delegates.
I was growing the membership in 2024 before our planned walkout on International Women’s Day for our Multi Employer Bargaining claim.
Then the union cancelled it and people drew the conclusion, why bother being in the union.
They settled the MEB for 10 per cent less that what we were asking for—15 rather than 25 per cent.
What do you think of the two competing tickets?
The United for You ticket stands for the service model that we’ve seen for the past two or three decades, that’s still pushed largely by the ALP.
The Members First ticket is linked to the rank-and-file model which goes back to what actually works—building power and pushing from below.
I’ve some confidence that Members First mean what they say. It’s a bureaucracy so there are always limitations.
Ironically, we [union activists] get accused of being CFMEU thugs, which is hilarious but it’s not so far from what we want to be—militancy is not thuggery but unionism.
What will the election mean for your organising at work?
ECE gets left behind. So rank-and-file members across the country have been talking to decide what we actually want. Higher wages, obviously. But we are concerned about [staffing] ratios.
If United for You wins all this organising will be squashed. The current leadership has blacklisted me as a delegate because they don’t want members having a say and who don’t play the ALP games.
Members First isn’t a perfect thing. [In terms of elections rules] the UWU is not set up for a true rank-and-file ticket.
Parsa Zaher has been a UWU delegate for casinos in Sydney for the past five years
How did the Members’ First campaign start?
Sometime in 2025 some of the delegates got together to write a letter to one of the directors of the union.
We asked to freeze the fees for a few years. Another one was the strike fund. Strike action is one of the most important tools we have in our toolkit. We know that militant unions get the best results.
Another demand was more power to the member councils because the member council was being used as a rubber stamp for the leadership. And we wanted more organisers.
At the same time we had thought, why are we giving so much money to the Labor Party?
When our letter failed [the] election was close, we [wanted] to get the rank and file very organised.
From the outside it seems some of the problems in the union come from divisions between United Voice (UV) and the National Union of Workers (NUW) that amalgamated to form the UWU.
The dynamic is not ex-UV versus ex-NUW. The dynamic is really grassroots.
For example casinos and clubs were UV sites and Logistics and Warehouses were NUW. But Members First has delegates from casinos, clubs, logistics and warehouses. The entire delegate group from my worksite is with us.
The dynamic is grassroots. It’s delegates and rank-and-filers versus a top leadership who’ve been in that position for about 20, 25 years.
It’s not [enough to] replace one leader with another.
Members First is a voice to say ‘enough’s enough’ and we need to take control of our union.
What is at stake for union members in this election?
The cost of living is still going up; we have to make sure we are on top of that.
The union is the only way wages are going to be pushed up. If the union’s not strong enough to win, wages will keep falling further behind inflation.
Hunter is a UWU delegate and health and safety rep at a call centre in the market and social research sector. They also work in hospitality. Both roles are casual.
At the call centre we have a union dues level that’s tied to income—1.5 per cent of our wage is paid through wage deduction.
It makes a massive difference when it comes to unionising our industry.
In call centres, our workforce is heavily casualised and we should be able to transfer to permanent part time.
There are laws that say you can convert but management makes you jump through hoops and the union is not giving us enough support to fight for PPT.
We don’t get penalty rates. Some of us are cold calling people on a Sunday afternoon and we don’t get any extra to cop abuse.
We hear unions won the 40-hour week and penalty rates and so one but we don’t get them.
What will the election mean for your organising at work?
If Members First wins they will need to follow through with their promises.
I hope we see more organisers. I’m hoping to see a shift to an organising model rather than a service model.
If we stick together then management are afraid of you rather than us being afraid of them.
