Australia’s two leading unionists will resign within months of each other, ending their tenures after winning major labor-friendly changes to industrial law, witnessing a decline in union membership, and dealing with crime in the CFMEU that forced Sally McManus to temporarily leave her home state.
On Monday, the Australian Council of Trade Unions revealed its secretary, McManus, and president Michael O’Neill would step down before the end of the year to “make way for a new generation of union leaders” and “renew” the peak labor organisation.
The pair, the ACTU’s second longest-serving leadership team, will stagger their departures to manage the leadership transition, with McManus, 54, staying on at the end of August and O’Neill, 64, until the end of this year.
In an interview to mark his planned departure, McManus said the COVID years were his most difficult time in the role, but that the CFMEU scandal had also taken a personal toll.
“We received threats through the ACTU and the police gave us advice on personal safety and what to do, which was a shock at the time,” said McManus, who lives in Melbourne. “I’m not anonymous, so I made sure I wasn’t in the state, and working out of Sydney.”
“There’s no way I ever imagined being in that situation. But you know, I have a lot of friends who live all over the country, and I thought, well, well, it’s time to go somewhere where the sun shines more often.”
In his first major interview as ACTU secretary in 2017, McManus defended the CFMEU for breaking “unfair” industrial rules. But in 2024, after the masthead revealed that organized crime had infiltrated the CFMEU, McManus called for an end to corruption in the union. He said on Monday he should remain in administration while it takes time to clean up the organisation, but took no position on growing calls for a royal commission in Victoria.
When McManus and O’Neil depart, the ACTU’s executive council will appoint people who will remain in the role until elections are held at the organization’s congress next year to confirm the secretary and president.
Under his leadership, the Albany government passed union laws that made it easier to bargain for pay increases, cracked down on the gig economy, and made several labor-friendly appointments to the Fair Work Commission.
Although the proportion of Australians with union membership fell from around 15 per cent to around 13 per cent in the ACTU in 2024, the most recent year for data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The 2024 figure is an increase on the previous low.
While growing union membership has been a challenge, McManus said it’s been a goal he’s had since the start of his tenure and progress has been made.
“I knew it would be very difficult to see the union progress because I’ve been a union official for 33 years and I know how difficult it is.” “But I know that membership is growing because I can see the numbers associated with the ACTU that continue to grow.”
McManus, who was elected to the ACTU’s leadership team in 2017, said stepping down before the election would give new leaders time to shape the policy agenda, but it came at an important time for her personally.
“[Michele and I] Always knew, and always said, we will not stand for election in our next Congress, and we do not want that Congress to be a farewell party.
She also became deaf in one ear, which will require a cochlear implant, McManus said. “So I’m going to have that operation and that rehabilitation that really takes time and effort to learn to hear again,” she said.
McManus said a key focus for unions going forward would be One Nation, which he said was a threat to workers’ rights.
“We’re definitely thinking about it,” he said. “It depends on a new leadership, but I think whoever it is, One Nation will certainly be a target. AI is certainly a big challenge and will be in the future … so is the influence of billionaires and the far right in Australian politics.”
ACTU president O’Neil, who was appointed in 2018, said renewed leadership was important for workers and the union movement.
“I have always believed that you do not own such positions,” he said. “You have him as an overseer, and it’s an honor, and it feels like it’s time for new people to come in. I don’t see a big U-turn, but there’s a lot of important work to be done, and new leaders will have new ideas and perspectives.”
This includes continuing to improve wages, ensuring that the work “too long underpaid”, and often done by women, is valued and fairly paid, and addressing the housing crisis.
Like McManus, O’Neil said the CFMEU faced scandal, but the leadership team took the right approach.
“I’m not easily intimidated, but I’m not going to pretend that there haven’t been moments where I’ve faced difficulty or the unexpected,” he said.
Once he’s helped the new secretary and president settle in, O’Neil says he’s eager to take a breather and think about what’s next for him.
“I’m not leaving anything out of my place,” she says. “I want to have some time to recover, and I also know what I won’t do, which is: I won’t become a politician.”
For McManus, who has also ruled out running for Parliament, the priority – apart from his operation – would be to go bird watching.
“I definitely want to find the red goshawk. It’s so rare, that bird,” she said. “I’m entitled to time off … it allows me to have a buffer, but after that, it’s a big leap into the unknown. Obviously, I always want to do my part to make the world a better place, but I don’t know what’s next.”
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Millie Merui is an economics writer covering the workplace and economics at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was previously an economics correspondent based at the Press Gallery in Canberra and a banking writer based in Sydney.Connect through X. or E-mail
