Five years after the financial crisis broke out, the euro zone is still mired in economic stagnation or contraction, while most of others are recovering at various speeds.
ALP national vice-president and prominent union leader Tony Sheldon has recruited overseas workers on 457 visas to fill three key positions in his union, defending the move by claiming he could not find suitably qualified Australian workers to take the jobs.
Unions are capitalizing on the government's latest spending programs to launch membership drives that target more than 300,000 workers in another sign of the way federal policies are aiding union objectives.