No. 14-21, 27 April 2021 | DOWNLOAD PDF

TO: QTU MEMBERS

Labour Day – statewide celebrations

Labour Day is fast approaching, and we are excited to share the details of the QTU’s celebrations across the state over the Labour Day long weekend (1 – 3 May).  Please visit https://www.qtu.asn.au/labourday for more information.

We invite all QTU members and their families to join with us in celebrating the ongoing importance and achievements of the union movement and our own mighty Union – the QTU!

The Brisbane parade commences at 10am sharp, so please join us from 9.15am at the meeting point of 163 Leichhardt Street to collect your QTU T-shirt and merchandise before the parade starts (we have portable privacy rooms to assist with changing if needed). We encourage you to be sun-safe and bring water with you. The QTU will have a small bus as part of our contingent for the Brisbane city parade, to provide transport for people with mobility issues or young children. The Brisbane parade concludes with the traditional family-fun day at the RNA Showgrounds, where there will be free rides for the kids, food and drinks.   

Share your favourite pics on the day via social media with the hash tag #QTULabourDay. There will be a prize for our favourite!

While Labour Day’s return is much-anticipated, it is still important that the events are COVID safe. All participants will be required to check in using a QR code, which will be available from our QTU helpers to make this as easy as possible. Please consider pre-downloading the Queensland COVID check-in app.  We will have the QR codes at the assembly meeting point and at the QTU tent, with various other locations set up at the RNA.

Important health advice:

• stay at home if you are unwell
• maintaining physical distancing requirements is the individual’s responsibility
• download the Queensland check-in app before attending the event
• do not attend the event if:
  • you have been in close contact with a person who is positive for COVID-19
  • you are positive for COVID-19
  • you have travelled overseas or to a declared COVID-19 hotspot in the previous 14 days.

Download the Queensland COVID check-in app

Labour Day Awards

Every year, the Queensland Council of Unions presents awards in recognition of the state’s finest union campaigns and activists. This year’s winners included the QTU members at Caloundra SHS, who took the Regional Activism Award for their successful campaign against a long-standing requirement to perform after-school crossing duty, a campaign that resulted in the scrapping of the duty and the installation of traffic lights at the crossing. Also honoured was Christine Jabs, who was highly commended in the Outstanding Delegate/Activist of the Year category for her ceaseless efforts on behalf of her fellow instrumental music teachers.

Workers Memorial Day

Tomorrow is International Workers Memorial Day, when we remember those who have died or have been injured in the workplace. In Queensland this year, 26 workers went to work and didn't come home.

Every worker deserves to come home safe - we will remember the dead and continue to fight for the living.

Dedicated to the tens of thousands of frontline health and essential service workers lost globally during COVID and to every worker who has died at work, the commemoration provides a time for reflection.

The Queensland Council of Unions will be hosting a memorial service tomorrow (Wednesday 28 April) from 11.00am at Emma Miller Place, Roma Street, Brisbane. The event will also be live streamed on the QCU’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/QueenslandUnions

Members who cannot attend in person are invited to hold memorial services in their workplaces and to take the time to reflect on the need for ongoing vigilance in terms of healthy and safe workplaces. It is vital that workplaces have a Health and Safety Rep. For more information about this, contact the QTU.​​​​

 Authorised by Kate Ruttiman, General Secretary, Queensland Teachers' Union
21 Graham Street, Milton, QLD, Australia, 4064