11 Jimmy, Better Read Than Dead Employee It was incredibly special to travel around Australian capital cities sharing our documentary and engaging in Q&A sessions with the attendees. When we started our campaign, it felt so small. We were a group of ordinary bookshop workers who wanted a better, safer place to work and thought that, rather than seek a greener pasture elsewhere, we could make one for ourselves where we were. I don't think any of us knew that retail workers hadn't taken industrial action in Australia for over 50 years. We are well aware of that now, and even more so because some of us had the chance to take the documentary on tour. We met other union members, activists, artists and supporters in the movement that had been quietly watching us from afar who now wanted the inside scoop — while at the same time wanting to say that they appreciated the stand we'd taken, which could now act as an industry standard and one version of a template for winning what you deserve as a collective. I've never witnessed more engaged, thoughtful, excited Q&A sessions in my life. It was a long way from the sometimes dull, asinine conversations that we have all been to at Writers Festivals or other events connected to the literary industry. Thank you to the organisers who took us under their wing, and to our comrades across the continent who shared their excitement with us. It's only up from here for the rights and power of retail and fast food workers. Carolina, RAFFWU Delegate and Committee Member In September my colleagues Jimmy, Leona and I had the absolute privilege of launching the Better Read Than Dead documentary across the country. We started our campaign with a simple goal: we wanted to make our workplace safer and fairer, not just for ourselves but for all BRTD employees to come. As Maddy, one of the documentary interviewees, so succinctly put it, we were all in it for everyone else. Whilst we quietly nurtured hopes that our campaign may have implications for other retail and fast food workers as its gravity slowly dawned on us, it still felt so insulated within the confines of our workplace. Yet one of my biggest takeaways from chatting with other workers at the documentary launches is that organised worker action does not exist in a vacuum. All action builds our movement. It was incredibly gratifying to be able to offer the documentary to other workers along with all the knowledge and lessons we learnt along the way. We hope it proves a valuable resource for workers in their fight for better workplaces. Thank you to everyone who made the launches possible and thank you to everyone who came along. We were inspired by every single person we met.
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