🦋 Whistleblowers, Butterflies, and the Union Machine

What happens when someone speaks up from inside the house?

Every Monday, like clockwork, the state secretary would brief us on the latest “troublemaker” who’d left the ASU and dared to speak up about what really went on behind the curtain.

The message was clear: dissent would be punished.

Loyalty was everything.

After our little branch merged with a larger ASU Queensland branch, those Monday morning updates became ritual.

Not about workers.

Not about campaigns.

About control.

Each week, we were fed stories about who was “turning on the union” - always framed as bitter, unstable, or disgruntled.

One name stuck with me.

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