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<\/p>\nThe new boss of Australia’s biggest union is confronting a question that is increasingly worrying workers: not just whether AI will take their jobs, but if any jobs will be left for their children.<\/p>\n
Public Sector Union boss Melissa Donnelly will take the helm of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), inheriting a movement at the height of its political influence but facing a long-term decline in membership and a fight over the impact of AI on the workforce.<\/p>\n
“Lots of workers aren’t just worried about what it means for their jobs, they’re worried about what it means for their teenage kids,” Ms Donnelly said.<\/p>\n
“Are there going to be jobs for them in the future?”<\/p>\n
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Melissa Donnelly will first focus on cost of living when she takes over as head of the ACTU. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)<\/p>\n
Things are very different from when Ms Donnelly was a 15-year-old union member clocking in to shifts at her local Target.<\/p>\n
Today the average union member is 44 years old and, like her, a working mum.<\/p>\n
Trade union membership has been in general decline since 1992, but under outgoing secretary Sally McManus it increased for the first time since 2011.<\/p>\n
Despite that gain, less than 4 per cent of members were aged 15 to 19, while about 7 per cent were aged 20 to 24.<\/p>\n
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Sally McManus was ACTU secretary from 2017 to 2026. (ABC News: Briana Fiore)<\/p>\n
Ms McManus said her replacement represented generational change.<\/p>\n
“With two school-aged children and having led a large union, she well knows the pressures working people are under,” she said.<\/p>\n
The cost of living will be Ms Donnelly’s first focus when she takes the helm at the end of August.<\/p>\n
“Every time you go to the checkout it costs more and more,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It will continue to be a key focus for our movement.”<\/p>\n
Donnelly inherits fight to win back young workers<\/p>\n
Ms Donnelly inherits the long-held challenge to bring more workers into the base.<\/p>\n
She will also have to deal with a series of reputational hits to the union movement in recent years, particularly in Victoria with the CFMEU forced into administration<\/a> and a looming royal commission into the state’s Big Build program.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite those headwinds, trade unions have had an exceptional run under the current federal Labor government, with wins including Same Job Same Pay and the Right to Disconnect.<\/p>\n Ms Donnelly said these real gains were the way the union movement must continue to appeal to younger workers most at risk of losing work to AI.<\/p>\n