Opinion: Labor-run unions should be scared

An a-political alternative to ALP-dominated unions is rapidly gaining traction with workers, despite efforts by Labor to discredit the Red Union Support Hub and its eight unions, writes Kylie Lang.

Two young guns from Brisbane have turned the tables on Australia’s tired old union model, and not without controversy.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus and other ALP diehards have slammed the rebel unions run by Jack McGuire and Aenghas Hopkinson-Pearson as “fake”.

There is nothing fake about them, or the 13,000 (and counting) nurses, teachers, drivers, miscellaneous workers, doctors and police officers they represent.

Red Union Support Hub, an umbrella for eight unions, has just gone national and could soon go global, with requests from nurses and teachers in Chicago to show them how to set up a union that puts people before politics.

No wonder Labor is scrambling to discredit them.

Every membership dollar that goes to RUSH is money and power lost to the Left.

It’s that simple.

Mr McGuire says RUSH does not support any political party so its fees are up to half of what traditional unions charge. That’s an attractive proposition, and one that sees Labor’s monopoly on the union movement is crumbling. In parliament last week, RUSH and its largest union, the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland (NPAQ), were repeatedly lambasted by three Labor ministers as “fake”.

Treasurer Cameron Dick also called the breakaway unions “nothing more than cheap swindlers and grifters”.

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick called the breakaway unions “nothing more than cheap swindlers and grifters”. Picture: Dan Peled/Getty Images

Education Minister Grace Grace said “the Palaszczuk Labor government will protect workers’ rights” (read: through the unions it controls) so there was no need for workers to seek an “alternative”.

And Health Minister D’Ath said the NPAQ was “anti-vax”.

In a further sign of desperation, Mr Dick tried to make a fuss about Shadow Minister for Health Ros Bates, a former nurse, being a member of the NPAQ.

At no point did he mention his own membership of the Australian Workers’ Union, just as Ms Grace didn’t talk about her lengthy union career prior to entering parliament or Ms D’Ath about her previous job at the AWU.

Mr McGuire, 28, and Mr Hopkinson-Pearson, 27, met while studying law at QUT and were heavily involved in the student union movement.

Soon after the NPAQ was formed in 2014 Mr McGuire came on board, and Mr Hopkinson-Pearson in 2019.

RUSH has grown fast to now include the Teachers Professional Association of Queensland (TPAQ), Professional Drivers Association of Australia (PDAA), Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS), Nurses Professional Association of Australia (NPAA), Teachers Professional Association of Australia (TPAA), Sworn Officers Professional Association of Australia (SOPAA) and Independent Workers’ Union of Australia (IWUA).

A lot of acronyms that spell a big headache for Labor.

Controversially, the NPAQ has taken a stand against mandatory vaccinations.

It believes nurses should not have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to go to work. I disagree. That aside, Mr McGuire is adamant NPAQ is “not anti-vax at all”.

“We’ve been characterised as that, but most of our members are fully vaccinated. Those who aren’t have a right to be represented as well. What we’re trying to achieve is that each workplace is assessed for risk of Covid-19 in line with occupational health and safety laws,” he says.

“Vaccination drastically reduces a person’s symptoms and stops you from dying but it doesn’t stop you from getting it or passing it on, so we’re also calling for the introduction of rapid antigen testing to screen people in certain workplaces, such as schools.”

Young union buster Jack McGuire, the spokesman for the breakaway nurses' union, the Nurses Professional Association of Queensland. His association has condemned a new LGBTIQ+ unit established within Queensland Health. Picture: Supplied.

Mr McGuire, a former member of the LNP (Mr Hopkinson-Pearson is still a member), says there is a good reason RUSH is unregistered (which is the basis of Labor’s claim of fakery).

“We don’t want our funds controlled by political parties,” he says. “We are professional industrial associations that offer indemnity insurance and industrial legal advice, and we regularly appear in the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on behalf of our members. But our unions don’t give a cent to political parties and offer no in-kind support to the ALP.”

No surprise then that Labor is fighting to protect its patch. It will have to fight harder.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

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