Council workers across Melbourne strike for fair pay and conditions

There’s a lot of front line workers in the government sector who are pissed off with the Victorian State Government at the moment. It was only a few weeks ago that tens of thousands of public school educators all across Victoria walked off the job in a historic 24 hour stop work action, and their first in more than a decade, after they rejected the State Government’s pathetic pay offer.

In their first strike action since 2012 - medical scientists, dietitions and others represented by the Medical Scientists Association of Victoria (or the Health Services Union Victoria No. 4 Branch) also did a strike action (which we weren’t there for), merely days after public school educators stopped work.

Rewind even further back to last year and we had the mental health workforce in the public health sector also doing strike actions as the State Government continues to insist on not resourcing this vital sector properly.

Fast forward to today and it's Council workers across 8 Metropolitan Councils turn to down tools for a 24 hour strike action and mass rally for fair wages and conditions; led by their union, the Australian Services Union (ASU).

Council workers' wages have stagnated and aren't keeping pace with cost of living because - yep you guessed it - the State Government refuses to fund councils properly. This is done while also capping - through legislation - rate increases, which ultimately restricts the the ability of councils to raise funds for the services they provide. Council workers are demanding an immediate 10 per cent 'catch up' pay increase, followed by a 4 per cent increase per year over the next 3 years, just for their wages to keep pace with inflation.

The 8 council areas on strike are Darebin, Greater Dandenong, Hobsons Bay, Hume, Maribyrnong, Melbourne, Merri-bek and Yarra.

The striking workforce range from librarians, to maintenance workers, to carers, to street sweepers, to cleaners, to rubbish collectors, among others. Just about every type of worker employed in any front line service that a council provides to its residents, and who tend to the amenity of local neighbourhoods, is represented in this strike.

We could certainly think of some things that the State Government should stop funding so excessively instead of crying poor; and so that essential services don’t continue to crumble; and so that front line workers who are employed to provide these services don’t continue to be ripped off with lousy pay and conditions… but we digress.

We certainly think that council executives should take a pay cut as well, though that’s only a small solution for rot that, as described above, is majorly systemic and baked in to current policy of the State Government.

Here’s a photo recap of today’s mass rally of Council workers, organised by the ASU, that formed part of the 24-hour strike action.

There were plenty of home made signs in the crowd.

Senator Lisa Darmanin speaks to the rally of striking council workers and praises the Albanese Government for changing workplace regulations to allow bargaining for agreements that cover multiple related work sites (in this case: council workers from across multiple councils). To its credit, this is actually one of the actually good things the current Federal Government has done during its time in office.

Darmanin was the State Secretary of the ASU Victorian/Tasmanian branch, the same branch that represents the striking council workers, until she became a Senator in 2024.

The rally marches before Parliament, where numerous union delegates reprrsenting workers from the Councils present gave speeches.

The crowd bounces a pair of large inflatable beach balls around the Spring St intersection as the crowd gathers and chants before Parliament. They're heavier than they look (we narrowly avoided being bowled over on a few occasions).

As we'd expect from a union led action, the event was well coordinated and well organised.

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