“Our Roads, Our Skies, Our Future!” TWU members from road and aviation have spent this year shouting that phrase at actions across the country, and across transport. When TWU members first began preparing for the 2026 and 2029 campaigns years ago, we knew that it would be the largest – and toughest – fight that transport workers have ever undertaken.
The journey here has been shared ad nauseum, but that by no means minimises the fact that decades of work has gone into aligning the hundreds of Enterprise Agreements that we’re negotiating this year – because this year is about pay, and also about bringing as much of transport as possible onto a fair and sustainable level. And importantly, ensuring that companies big and small begin to adopt new standards, conditions, and job security provisions.
At our Delegates Conference this year, our theme was “Our Time is Now.” On theme, we reflected heavily on all of the work its taken to get here, and how the power transport workers have achieved is already paying off – many in-principle agreements were struck by the time of our conference.
With Premier Chris Minns, we watched a video detailing the work that transport workers have undertaken in just this last decade. When watched as a timeline, the wins stack up like bricks: Aviation workers fighting back against industry fragmentation, and the collapse of the Alan Joyce regime. The largest penalty against an employer in Australian industrial relations history in Qantas. Convoys to the Australian and New South Wales Parliaments, and the passing of consequential transport reform for workers across waste, bus, gig, owner drivers and more. These were only some of the achievements we covered.
We know once again that the TWU has earned a reputation of taking on the fights nobody else wants to take on, of fighting for workers when the chips are down and still coming out on top. We don’t wait for an open door – we push it open. The $200 million in additional wages for bus drivers is just one high-profile example of the results that come from relentlessly, and effectively, campaigning for transport workers, with transport workers. The only reason we can do that is because of our members, who are the most relentless anywhere.
This is the kind of stuff we get done because we’re a serious Union with a passionate membership, who don’t just talk the talk but make their case to the community, to the Government, to their employers as well.
As we move to the last months of the year, we can already see that we’ve had some big wins in 2026. While we have reached many in-principle agreements and are negotiating in good-faith with others, we will continue to stand with workers when the going gets tough and when employers mistreat their workforce.
I look forward to sharing more victories with you as we reach the end of this year.
Members, our roads, our skies and our future are in the spotlight this year. Our time is now.
Nick McIntosh • TWU Assistant Secretary