A-Infos (en) Australia, AnConFed Picket Line: Retail workers deserve a real union - support RAFFWU! (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

The Victorian Labor government's Associations Incorporation Reform 
Amendment Bill 2026 is a piece of legislation that, in the name of 
protecting unions, actually attacks them. The proposed legislation 
essentially forces any "unregistered" union incorporated in Victoria to 
wind up - "unregistered" in this instance referring to registration with 
the Fair Work Commission (FWC). Aside from a section about hate groups, 
which is uncontroversial, the bill primarily targets two things: the 
Retail and Fast Food Workers' Union (RAFFWU), and the "Red Unions".

Will the real retail union please stand up?
RAFFWU was set up around ten years ago, by a group of union activists 
and rank-and-file workers determined to improve the wages and conditions 
of workers in retail and fast food, which were not only being undermined 
by employers, but also by the very union that was meant to represent 
them - the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA).

The SDA's right-wing behaviour is well known. They are led by 
politicians who make up Labor's most aggressively conservative faction. 
Their modus operandi is to sign sweetheart agreements with employers 
that offer worse pay and conditions than the retail award, in exchange 
for the employers helping the SDA recruit their employees. They then use 
this expanded membership to promote homophobia, transphobia, 
neoliberalism, and anti-abortion policy within the Labor Party. The fact 
that these positions are unpopular with their disproportionately young 
base is irrelevant, since their members have no say.

RAFFWU first became known for their legal challenges in the courts and 
in the FWC to junk rotten SDA agreements that leave workers worse than 
the award. Within a few years, however, they had major organising 
campaigns underway, mobilising workers on the shopfloor level to defend 
their rights and win better pay and conditions. They have largely been 
successful on both counts, even with their small staff and modest 
resources. Their legal challenges have junked agreements that should 
have never gotten up, and have won thousands and thousands in backpay to 
workers denied basic entitlements.

Their industrial actions have also been successful, with members 
organising a number of strikes to secure industry-leading agreements 
like the one at Better Read than Dead Books in Sydney. In SDA 
strongholds like Woolworths and Coles, they have led unprecedentedly 
popular campaigns against the employer-SDA agreements, drawing thousands 
of people towards solid unionism, and winning over long-term SDA members 
in the process.

However, RAFFWU is vulnerable. Generally, registered unions have the 
formal role of representing workers at the FWC. However, RAFFWU is 
prevented from registering - the FWC effectively only recognises one 
union per job, preventing the registration of any rival bodies. If they 
applied to register, there is no guarantee that they'd succeed (and the 
SDA hacks promoting the bill know this).

In order to represent workers at the FWC, RAFFWU relies on members 
appointing them as their independent bargaining representative, allowing 
them to carry out nearly all the functions of unions at the FWC while 
not being registered as one. This is what allows them to do things like 
undertake protected industrial actions. This has worked well so far. But 
they are only able to do this because of specific parts of the 
legislation allowing for these bargaining representatives - sections 
that could indeed be amended.

Red or yellow?
The so-called "Red Unions", on the other hand, are a collection of 
yellow unions set up by Liberal party activists and other right wingers 
to undermine the dominant unions - primarily in public education, 
healthcare, and the public service. They first came into the limelight 
during the COVID pandemic, when they represented workers disgruntled 
with vaccine mandates.

Unionists are right to be concerned about the role they play in 
undermining their own efforts. The Red Unions are known for exploiting 
confused people who don't know any better and think they are "the 
union". They take advantage of the remoteness of the established unions 
from everyday workers in order to present themselves as the real deal.

We need to fight the Red Unions, but outlawing them is a shortcut that 
doesn't address the fundamental problem. We don't need the government to 
fix our problems for us - we need to make the actual unions in teaching 
and nursing far better, so that no one would even consider joining a Red 
Union. If there is a strong amount of rank-and-file activity on the shop 
floor and in the actual union that is clearly fighting for the interests 
of workers, it would be near-impossible for Red Unions to con people 
into joining them.

If the proposed Victorian legislation passes, then RAFFWU will be thrown 
into an existential crisis. There is an additional threat that this 
legislation will be adopted by other states and territories, and 
possibly even the federal government. Arecent federal Labor conference 
passed a motion, moved by the SDA, to support legislation targeting 
"unregistered unions".

Unionists in every industry need to start rolling the solidarity ball 
now to make sure this legislation doesn't pass. Talk to people about 
what's happening. Pass motions in your branches opposing the laws and 
supporting RAFFWU. Force the issue at state and federal conferences. 
Force the leadership of these unions to pull their support for the 
legislation. The next time RAFFWU undertakes an industrial action, be 
there - and bring your fellow workers.

When RAFFWU was launched, it was quietly and tacitly supported by 
officials of some left-wing unions, who were keen to see their prime 
factional rivals in the SDA undermined. The unanimous support given to 
the Carroll government's proposed legislation by the left-wing unions 
has shown how thin this initial support was; how they've given up any 
semblance of supporting progressive unionism in order to make a 
factional deal within Labor. If rank-and-file members of these unions 
force the leadership to change course, then the SDA's entire push could 
fall apart.

Workers everywhere should know how much is at stake if these laws pass. 
RAFFWU isn't just some tiny activist venture, it's an unprecedented 
opportunity for workers in the strategically critical retail and fast 
food industry to mobilise for better pay and conditions. If these 
campaigns continue to grow and succeed, then the repercussions for the 
entire union movement could be significant. If the SDA are instead 
allowed to use their government ties to legislate their rivals out of 
existence, then the consequences would hurt all of us.

https://ancomfed.org/2026/09/retail-workers-deserve-a-real-union-support-raffwu/
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