Prior to their appearance in Workers First, Frank Fairley and Bronwyn Halfpenny were also office holders. During the most recent AMWU elections, the group's candidates won control of the state branch's metal and food divisions and Johnston became AMWU state secretary. The elections registered an ongoing crisis for the union. Only 34 percent of the members bothered to vote. The results show that the vast majority of manufacturing workers are either hostile or indifferent to the entire union apparatus.
First candidates is indicative of a growing dissatisfaction and militancy among workers.
Workers First's record Workers First claims to oppose trade-offs and backroom deals with the employers. Yet its leaders have been enforcing such trade-offs. Johnston and his colleagues have signed-off on similar EBAs across Victoria, but combined this with militant posturing. Last year, for example, workers at Melbourne's Simplot factory took week-long industrial action against Manpower Services. The outcome of the Simplot dispute, however, was not the elimination of casual employment, but rather a union agreement to regulate casual and contract labour.