This year, Congress is being held on Kaurna Country (Adelaide) at the Adelaide Convention Centre, on 4th, 5th and 6th June. This will also be an opportunity for the national movement to celebrate the 140th anniversary of SA Unions.
ACTU Congress 2024 will be the first Congress to be held in person since 2018. An enormous amount has happened in those six years; so much to reflect on, celebrate and build upon together!
This Congress comes at a significant time for our movement, and in society at large. The world is shifting; people want change, and they see how essential unions are in creating a more just and equal society for all.
The union movement is about building solidarity through struggle. We fight for justice, progress, and the betterment of workers’ lives both now and into the future.
Congress24 provides an amazing opportunity for the union movement to collectively craft a vision for the future working people want to build.
This year’s themes reflect the nature of our times: the growth of our movement to win for working people, action on climate change, technological progress and the challenges that emerge from it.
Working people carried the country through the pandemic. Workers in every industry continued to turn up – despite the unknown – to ensure that people were safe, connected, healthy and supported in a time of unprecedented crisis.
The movement came together – led by First Nations unionists – and walked with First Nations peoples in campaigning for a Voice to Parliament. While we were not successful, we have not wavered in our commitment and solidarity with First Nations Australians for Voice, Truth, and Treaty.
Union members secured some of the biggest workers’ rights victories in a generation.
Winning huge legislative changes will mean a suite of new rights for workers across the country. From paid Family and Domestic Violence leave, to improved pay and conditions for gig workers, to better protections for union delegates and so much more.
All of this, while winning better deals for workers across the country, in all industries, every day of the week.
This is the triennial opportunity for delegates – from every industry, and every union – to determine policies and strategies for winning better wages and conditions, decide upon union priorities, and set the agenda for the next three years. Every worker and union in Australia is represented in this process.
Congress also provides a chance to celebrate our wins together, to connect, and build friendship and solidarity! Something the pandemic has taught us to not take for granted.
