Tim Kennedy and the United Workers Union have made one of the most important and thoughtful strategic contributions in response to the covid19 pandemic and its associated economic and social crisis.

They have demanded that government prioritises 'Income, ownership, investment and social justice' - with specific proposals for a job guarantee and a universal income guarantee of $740 per week, regardless of visa status.

The UWU is one of Australia's largest unions, bringing together 150,000 workers across 45 industries, including warehousing, defence, hospitality, health, aged care, logistics & supermarket supply, cleaning, security, farming, manufacturing, and market research. I would especially like to welcome all the UWU members and officials joining us tonight. The UWU organises in many Award reliant sectors and industries dominated by insecure work. They are one of the country's most innovative unions, trying new tactics to engage workers, such as in their 'Hospo Voice' section. They are also a new union - formed recently by the merger of United Voice and the National Union of Workers under a new structure where there are no state branches - another innovation….

Tim Kennedy is a long-standing union official, working as the National Secretary of the NUW before the merger to create the UWU, and has emerged as a strategic union leader willing to consider new and effective forms of action. Over Tim’s twenty years with the NUW, he worked as an organiser, industrial officer, assistant national secretary, Victorian branch secretary and national president. Tim is speaking to us tonight on "Income, ownership, investment, social justice - a union response to the COVID-19 Crisis"...