On 12 August, Ben Carroll and the Victorian Labor Government set the wheels in motion for a legislative attack on RAFFWU. Perhaps we should have seen this coming but it was a shock to me to see a media release announcing the introduction of the Associations Incorporation Reform Amendment Bill 2026 into Parliament.
The proposed legislation would amend the laws related to incorporated associations and allow Consumer Affairs Victoria to wind up any association formed for “industrial purposes” in Victoria unless the organisation is registered under the Fair Work Act.
However the Fair Work Act includes a provision that you can’t form a registered organisation if there is already a registered organisation to which your members “could more conveniently belong”.
The Victorian ALP has claimed this new legislation is to target “Red Unions”, a group of unregistered industrial associations that purport to represent workers with a promise of lower fees and no ties to political parties.
It is not credible that with an uncertain state election just months away and a handful of sitting days left that Premier Ben Carroll would waste time and energy on bespoke legislation targeting the tiny and ineffective “Red Unions”.
If you examine the context in which this legislation has been created, it is obvious that this is a calculated attack against the Retail and Fastfood Workers Union (RAFFWU).
The legislation intends to force RAFFWU into no man’s land. Unable to be a registered union, unable to operate as an incorporated association, harder for a small organisation to hold itself together and organise workers.
The legislation is a shameful attempt by the Carroll government to legislate RAFFWU out of existence on behalf of the Shop, Allied and Distributive Employees Association – the SDA.
They don’t call Carroll ‘Kmart Keating‘ for nothing.
“Red Unions” or red herring?
So, who are these “Red Unions” anyway? According to their own website the “Red Unions” represent approximately 25,000 members. For comparison this is about the size of the MEU (25,435), and somewhere between the FSU (20,658) and the NTEU (28,737).
They are split into 5 broad “associations” – the Australian Medical Professionals’ Society (AMPS) for doctors and allied health workers; the Teachers’ Professional Association of Australia (TPAA); the Nurses Professional Association of Australia (NPAA), the Sworn Officers’ Professional Association of Australia (for cops) and the Independent Workers Union of Australia (open to anyone that doesn’t fit in the other 4 unions).
These “associations” promise “protection without the politics”. They claim to offer legal representation and assistance with workplace issues with “zero party politics”. However, the “Red Unions” have deep ties to the LNP (Liberal National Party in Queensland). They were set up by Graeme Haycroft, the former chair of the LNP’s industrial relations and employment policy committee. Haycroft’s credentials also include being a member of the HR Nicholls Society, a supporter of the Joh for PM campaign and a franchisee of labour hire firm Troubleshooters Available with which he intervened and severely damaged the AWU’s unionisation of shearers in Queensland in the 1990s.
But the “Red Unions” really came into prominence, and only spread from Haycroft’s home state of Queensland when they began challenging “vaccine mandates” during the COVID pandemic.
It is unclear how many workers the “Red Unions” represent in Victoria where this legislation is being proposed. If even half of its national membership was in Victoria (which I strongly doubt) this would represent a tiny number of people to “protect” through bespoke legislation to. It simply doesn’t make sense. The “Red Unions” are a red herring.
I do believe Red Unions are harmful. But the problem with them isn’t that they are not registered trade unions or that they are not affiliated to the ACTU or state trades and labour councils. The problem is that they exist to undermine the genuine organisation of workers and have no interest in improving working conditions for the working class as a whole.
Their orientation and model is the worst version of service unionism – dial the hotline when in crisis as an individual; have your issue solved (maybe!?) as an individual; go back to working as an individual. And don’t forget our dues are cheaper! This does nothing to build worker power.
This model should be easily defeated by other unions simply doing a better job of organising. How weakened are trade unions in this country, that they cannot manage to persuade at least some of these workers that there is power in solidarity? That organising as workers is inherently political? That there is more to being in a union than a 1800 number to call? Are our unions so diminished that they cannot rise to this challenge? That the only solution is to plead to the ALP for legislation?
The uncomfortable truth is that yes, many unions are currently that weak. Much of the focus of the ACTU, state trades and labour councils and unions is to lobby the ALP for legislation to make things easier.
Our unions often fail to represent workers, or include workers in organising. And while huge segments of the workforce remain un-unionised, those who do retain union membership rarely see an organiser, are not supported to build the union in their workplace and sometimes struggle to get a phone call returned. So why would a worker pay more dues if all they are getting is a 1800 number and an ALP affiliation?
The failings of our unions have created an environment where Red Unions can recruit, even if only in small numbers. And the same weakness leads unions to look for legislative solutions rather than having the courage to win workers back through organising.
Ultimately though the framing of the “Red Unions” as the target of this legislation is a red herring. The legislation was introduced into the Victorian Parliament with only EIGHT sitting days left before the state election. Only a tiny number of Victorian workers are members of the “Red Unions”. It doesn’t make sense.
RAFFWU
Ben Carroll and the ALP had a completely different target in mind when drawing up this legislation, one they deliberately did not mention in the media release. RAFFWU.
RAFFWU was established in 2016 as workers and activists became increasingly dissatisfied with the registered union covering retail workers – the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association – the SDA.
The workers who started RAFFWU were frustrated that the only registered union in their industry was making shit deals with some of the most profitable companies in the country. The SDA negotiated EBAs with big employers that either failed to pass the “better off overall test”, or included wages just above the award minimum but with reduced conditions, including removing penalty rates. In exchange, the SDA got unrestricted access to workers for recruitment, and payroll deduction for dues. Cheap workers for supermarket and fast food giants; huge membership numbers for the SDA buying them power within the ALP.
RAFFWU and its members have worked to fight back against subpar agreements; acted as a bargaining rep for members improving agreements during SDA dominated negotiations; run campaigns on safety, gender discrimination and harassment and led industrial action at several major retailers.
RAFFWU has filled a void left by the SDA’s lack of interest in actually organising and representing workers’ interests. Through RAFFWU, retail and fast food workers can organise and fight for a better deal at work. The SDA has no interest in supporting workers who are organising, or even allowing space for rank and file to organise themselves.
Since 2017, the SDA’s membership has plummeted from 213,127 to 196,933. Some of this decline is in response to RAFFWU’s organising and their efforts to shine a light on the SDA’s friendly dealings with employers. In response, the SDA have turned to the ALP and demanded a legislative solution to “deal with” RAFFWU.
The Shoppies
The SDA is the last remnant of “The Groupers”. These were conservative Catholics in the ALP fighting against the presence of communism in trade unions in Australia. The influence of the Groupers was at its peak throughout the 1940s – 1960s, and led to the split of the ALP and the formation of the DLP in 1957.
Several unions came under the control of the Groupers including the Federated Clerks’ Union, the Federated Ironworkers’ Association, the Australasian Society of Engineers and the SDA. Over the course of the 20th century, most of these unions either amalgamated or overturned Grouper leadership, leaving the SDA as the last bastion.
While the retirement of long-term SDA leader Joe de Bruyn in 2018 saw the SDA dialling back some of its public commentary and campaigning on social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion, its industrial strategy of cosy deals with employers to ensure induction access; payroll deductions and preferential treatment of the SDA’s industry superannuation fund REST remained unchanged.
It is not in the DNA of the SDA to actively organise or to take industrial action. The union acts through its relationships with employers; and through its power in the ALP.
In December, the AWU (a factional ally of the SDA), put a motion up at the Queensland ALP Conference entitled “Scab Unions have no place in Queensland” and moved: “That this Conference: 1. Condemns NPAQ, TPAQ, AMPS, RAFFWU and other Red Unions who continue to sow division within our union movement. 2. Calls on the Miles Government to continue to affirm their position and do everything it can to ensure that scab unions have no place in Queensland.” At the National ALP Conference in July, the Federal Minister for Workplace Relations Amanda Rishworth moved an amendment to the ALP’s National Platform that “Labor will legislate to limit the participation of sham unions under the Fair Work Act, including their capacity to act as bargaining representatives.” Rishworth is a former official of the SDA. The SA Government led by another former SDA official, Peter Malinauskas, passed laws cracking down on “unregistered unions” way back in 2024.
So facing the distinct possibility of losing the upcoming state election, newly minted Victorian Premier (and SDA member) Ben Carroll took his opportunity to secure support from his factional mates in the union movement by putting this legislation at the top of his to-do list.
This is an organised strategy by the SDA to attempt to cripple RAFFWU through legislation.
Freedom of Association?
This legislative attack by the ALP on behalf of the SDA uncovers major problems in how the Australian state regulates trade unions. While we have the right to join or not join organisations, the state tightly controls which organisations can become registered.
This is not a genuine freedom of association. Certainly not in the way the ILO envisaged.
For workers, it means if your union is shit, weak or anti-democratic you can either take it or leave it. For the first RAFFWU members, the entrenched cronyism and sellout deals of the SDA made both of these options unsatisfactory.
RAFFWU members have thought outside the box and worked around the constraints of the Fair Work Act but are now set to be punished for daring to organise themselves. I don’t doubt that RAFFWU will continue to organise, but their work will be made even harder.
Tight regulations about which organisations can become registered, along with strict demarcation rules stop workers from being able to freely organise. Existing laws do not serve the interests of workers, rather they protect the interests of existing union bureaucracies and their ALP masters.
And as we have seen with the CFMEU, and now RAFFWU, the ALP is not afraid to create more laws to hobble effective, militant unions should current legislative frameworks prove insufficient or ineffective.
Don’t mourn, organise
When confronted with a web of vested interests between big business, trade unions and the Australian Labor Party it is easy to feel disgusted and demoralised and give up.
But we cannot allow these vested interests to stop us. We must keep organising.
We must organise within our unions where we can, even when it is hard and feels impossible. There are no short cuts.
Only through organisation will we build power. If enough of us do that together, we can build a fighting union movement that can push back against bad laws, mean legislation and those that want to keep us quiet, compliant and unorganised.
RAFFWU has demonstrated that retail and fast food workers are not unorganisable. Workers in these industries are more than ready to put up the fight against some of the biggest companies in the country.
Workers must support our RAFFWU comrades to fight the boss on the shop floor; and to resist anti-worker laws.
Sarah Missen is a writer and trade unionist. She writes Disputes Report.
