Welcome to 2026, and our most ambitious campaign to date: Our Roads, Our Skies, Our Future.
Last year, I spoke to you about the years of relentless, deliberate effort that has gone into aligning over 200 EAs for this year. After decades of fragmentation, and a race to the bottom across every sector in our industry, this year is the turning point that, through the relentless effort of transport workers, will see us in prime position for 2029, 2032, and beyond – which is why it is critical that we stand together.
With the campaign well and truly underway, it is worth reminding ourselves of this year’s core mission; the objectives we’re working together to achieve across road and aviation:
“Transport Workers have aligned over 200 Enterprise Agreements to expire in 2026, so we can take action across road transport and aviation, fighting to lift everyone’s pay and conditions and set better sector standards.”
Our goals:
- Make Clients Pay
- Set Better Sector Standards
- Become More Member-Led
2024 and ’25, as well as the countless legislative reforms, legal wins, and member triumphs that went with them, are now in the rearview mirror. That is not to say that our countless achievements were not historic, and will not be remembered for years to come. Quite the contrary, those victories have helped spur the momentum that we will use to ensure that this year is as successful for transport workers as it can be. We will use the tools we have accrued from the last few years to look decidedly forward.
Already in the last few months, we have put multiple filings into the Fair Work Commission, for Cabin Crew, as well as for thousands of bus drivers in NSW, under a historic multi-employer bargaining application, using these very same laws we fought for in the last few years.
By doing so, we have put clients on notice, just like we did with Cash-In-Transit in 2025, to send a clear message that it’s not just employers that we are making accountable, but the whole supply chain. The bus companies realised this when they joined us for our recent bus industry roundtable at NSW Parliament, singing in one voice to the Transport Minister and the Treasurer that the TWU and our members are the voice with the most authority on the reality of workers.
The NSW and Federal Governments have worked with us productively for transport reform, and we will continue to engage constructively with them for the benefit of transport workers. However, as our application shows, our patience is not infinite – workers have already waited far too long for the race to the bottom to end.
We are seeing this kind of energy everywhere in our industry as workers from every sector are fighting in unison to achieve a fairer industry. I recently joined our Majors and Retail delegates as they endorsed their claim and took action against Amazon for their unfair business practices (see more in this journal). Amazon is the textbook example of the kind of client that fragments the industry the most. Their regressive, anti-worker practices may come from the guise of them being a tech innovator, but it has a very human toll. In this uncertain period we’re all living through, we need minimum sector standards now more than ever, in every shape or form that may take across our sectors – like our proposed Safe and Secure Skies Commission in aviation.
I look forward to continuing this fight with you this year. We value your trust, and have fought year-in, year-out to maintain it. This year, like every year, it is you, our members, who are the transport industry’s greatest resource.
I wish all of you a safe and happy Easter period, and I’ll see you this Winter as the fight continues.
When we fight, we win!
Richard Olsen • TWU Secretary