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Unions in last ditch campaign

Union leaders are using the final week of the federal election campaign to shore up support for Labor in Queensland.

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Source: AAP


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Labor fears at least 10 of Queensland's 30 seats are at risk of falling to the Liberal National Party at the August 21 election.

ACTU president Ged Kearney and secretary Jeff Lawrence kicked off their series of workplace events in Brisbane on Tuesday, meeting with charity workers and university staff.

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Ms Kearney said 41,000 Queenslanders owed the Labor government their jobs, as the nation emerged from the global economic crisis.

"That is how many people in this state would have been made redundant if the coalition had succeeded in stopping the stimulus," she said.

Ms Kearney said the coalition under Tony Abbott would strip unfair dismissal protections, reintroduce individual contracts and cut jobs.

Mr Lawrence told staff at a stopwork rally at the University of Queensland that the Howard government had used the threat of withholding commonwealth funding to foist workplace agreements on tertiary institutions.

UQ staff have started a series of rolling stoppages to secure a better pay offer under a new collective agreement.

Pay talks at the university began late last year.


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