The scrapping of the Award covering correctives staff working in Kempsey, Dillwynia, Wellington and John Morony (see page 7) is a welcome development for our members working in those centres. But it is also a sign that long, sustained campaigns bring results.

The decision to get rid of the Award, which meant some Officers were employed under inferior conditions for the same work performed by others in different public prisons, is what being a union member is all about. United we stand, using our numbers to overturn badly designed decisions that hurt our members.

The decision, which was ratified by our members last year, is the culmination of efforts that began in 2017, when the PSA began campaigning for the award to be rescinded.
The win is the result of efforts from members and PSA industrial staff working together for a common goal.

Like our historic wins scrapping gender-based underpayments in libraries and schools, the elimination of this Award is the result of a highly skilled team working together. Members, Delegates and staff go through legislation, talk to workers on the frontline and get legal advice about matters affecing Public Sector workers.

Unions are members working together to get a better deal for working people. Wins such as this are a great example of what can be done when everyone is of one voice.
Your vote in the coming election is yet another part of a slow process to improve our working lives.

Voters all over the state are tired of a stale state government, tired of increasing prices, tired of sell-offs and tired of insecure work. Our members are certainly tired of a wage cap that has failed to keep up with inflation levels not seen since the 1980s and 1990s.

So it is up to us, voters and workers, to unite and keep the people who represent us in check. We have been on the ground, campaigning to ensure, that whatever party or parties are in charge, policy is formulated with the best interests of the Public Sector, and the people who depend on our members.

Even if the current government, with its addiction to privatisation and slavish devotion to the wages cap, is voted out, the process to undo 12 years of anti-Public Sector policy will take time.

The ship of state takes a long time to turn around and, whatever its stripes, a new government won’t necessarily give us all we want. Members can rest assured the fight will go on, whoever is in charge in Macquarie Street. We have the team to do just that.