New leadership team for Queensland union movement

Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128, 25 August 2023, page no.4

Jacqueline King and Kate Ruttiman have been elected as the new leadership team of the Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) – the peak union body in Queensland representing almost 400,000 union members.

Jacqueline has been elected General Secretary, having held the role in an acting capacity since late 2022. Jacqueline previously held the role of QCU Assistant General Secretary.

Kate, who is also General Secretary of the Queensland Teachers’ Union, has been re-elected as President.
Together, Jacqueline and Kate are the first elected female leadership team for the Queensland peak body.
Jacqueline, a member of the Electrical Trades Union, started working in the union movement in her twenties as an organiser. 

After organising for several years, she became a Research and Industrial Officer with the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union and the QCU before working for several Labor State Ministers for Industrial Relations.
Since returning to the QCU, Jacqueline has been responsible for driving the legislative agenda pursuing changes to work health and safety, managing psychosocial hazards at workplaces, prevention of sexual harassment, and achievement of gender pay equity in Queensland.

Kate was elected President of the QCU in 2019, when she became the first woman to hold the role.