Kim Sattler, UnionsACT Secretary, was the Vintage Reds’ guest speaker on Tuesday 19 August2014 at the Dickson Tradies’ Club. Kim spoke on the topic “Bust the Budget & Fair Go for Canberra“.
Author Archives: vintagereds
June 2014 guest speaker, Marie Coleman, NFAW
Marie Coleman was our guest speaker on 17 June 2014 at the Dickson Tradies Club.
Marie is a well-known activist and former public servant, and was the ACT’s Senior Australian of the year in 2011. She spoke on the May budget brought down by Messrs Abbott and Hockey.
The National Foundation for Australian Women, of which Marie was a founding member in 1989, has issued a press release,”Budget 2014: Women are the biggest losers!”, which notes that an unemployed single mother with one eight-year-old child would lose $54 per week or 12 per cent of their disposable income.
For the NFAW document, see http://www.nfaw.org/budget-2014-women-biggest-losers/
April 2014 guest speaker, Jo Root of COTA
We welcomed Jo Root, National Policy Manager of the Council of the Ageing (COTA), and Paul Flint, Executive Director, ACT, COTA, to our April meeting at the Dickson Tra
dies Club.
Jo spoke to the meeting on the topic “Where to from here on the Age Pension?”. She noted that 70% of retirees rely on the Age Pension as a significant component of their income, and 60% are on the full Age Pension.
Photo of Jo, from her Twitter page, https://twitter.com/positiveage
About Vintage Reds
[Source: Chris Bourke, chrisbourke.com.au/2014/02/18/vintage-reds/, Feb 18, 2014]
Vintage Reds, a new network of retired progressive unionists in the Canberra region was officially launched by ACTU President Ged Kearney at the Unions ACT offices in Mitchell on 15-2-14. In the photo at the launch I am with Jane Timbrell, one of the founders of Vintage Reds, Ged Kearney and Kim Sattler, Unions ACT Secretary.
Vintage Reds gives older unionists a chance to socialise, support each other and continue to be involved in campaigning using the skills acquired over a lifetime.
Ged Kearney praised Vintage Reds and said they can play an important role in supporting the struggles for workers’ rights especially when the union movement and retirees are under sustained pressure from the new federal government.
To contact the Vintage Reds email vintagereds.canberra@gmail.com
Unionism’s retired ranks dust off their cards
[Source: Noel Towell, canberratimes.com.au/act-news/unionisms-retired-ranks-dust-off-their-cards-20140214-32rog.html, February 15, 2014]
Their days as union firebrands might be long behind them, but a group of Canberra’s retired workplace activists reckons the flames never really go out.
Hundreds of retired union members from around the capital are answering the call to arms from Vintage Reds, a new group set up to try to unleash the untapped grey potential of the Australian union movement. Continue reading