Dear Members,

I want to talk to you about building a stronger, better resourced and more effective union.

Queensland's public sector workers face many challenges every day - workplace harassment; heavy workloads; a culture of public sector independence that is often under attack.

I believe the only way to meet these challenges is to build a stronger union that can recruit more members and put more resources into getting outcomes for members.

That's why our QPSU executive is in discussion with the Australian Services Union, Central and Southern Queensland Branch (ASU), with the aim of creating a new organisation, Unite Queensland.

Information on these plans is in the latest copy of the QPSU Journal, Public Sector Voice, which you should be receiving over the next few weeks.

The ASU is a union that is familiar already to thousands of Queensland Health workers and workers in universities. In Queensland Health the QPSU and ASU have sometimes struggled to reach their full ability to win better working conditions due to the situation where the two are in competition for membership.

Unite Queensland will end the division that has stopped us from building a stronger, better resourced and more effective union in Health. It will give us greater focus across the public sector and create more opportunity to have workers engaged and active in their union.

The discussions about Unite Queensland are still continuing. Members of our QPSU Council will be called upon to make a decision on 1 September on whether to endorse the amalgamation and then send a proposal to a full ballot of QPSU and ASU members so you will have your chance to vote.

There will be more discussions over the coming weeks. If you have questions, you can email amalgamation@qpsu.org.au. The Public Sector Voice is available online and you can read about the proposal there. There will also be more information on the QPSU website shortly. It's important that we get this process right so that Unite Queensland can empower workers to build strength and take on workplace challenges.

Thanks for your support of your union colleagues and I hope you will join me in creating a stronger, better resourced and more effective union.

In union,

Vivienne

PS: We have also updated the front page of the website to cover this issue and will put more links there soon to make it easy for members to find out more! This is an historic time for our union and very exciting.

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