WORKERS across Australia rallied to “change the rules” of a political and economic system rigged against ordinary people yesterday, with 100,000 marching in Melbourne alone.

Trade unions organised rallies in 14 cities and towns to promote the Change the Rules campaign, which says the Liberal Party government has presided over the biggest collapse in living standards for three decades and that a change in government is needed to shift power and wealth from employers to workers.

Six thousand workers at Australia’s biggest telecoms company Telstra took strike action over bosses’ bid to “force workers to take a pay cut in real terms,” according to the CEPU union’s communications division national president Shane Murphy, and they swelled the ranks of the marchers.

“Telstra CEO Andy Penn, whilst taking home millions, is overseeing the axing of thousands of jobs and attempting to force the remaining workforce to accept a pay increase well below inflation,” Mr Murphy said.

Melbourne’s rally was joined by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of the Labour Party, who said he was proud to march with trade unionists, though “some people will be critical” of his decision.

“There will be tens of thousands of people marching in Melbourne and across the country setting a clear message that rules need to change and we need a fair go,” he said. “People are sick of everything going up except their wages.”

Other huge demos took place in Perth, Canberra and Adelaide.

Australian Council of Trade Unions (Actu) president Michele O'Neil said unions would be targeting 28 seats at the next election, up from 21, because the success of the campaign so far meant “more seats are at play … than were six months ago.

“What we’re doing is we’re looking on a daily basis at where it is, we’re pretty nimble. We’re able to respond to what people say to us.”

And Actu secretary Sally McManus, addressing the Perth rally, said unions would be conducting “mass door-knocks right across the country” this weekend.

Labour leader Bill Shorten says the coming election, whose date has not yet been fixed but is likely to be on May 18, should be a “referendum on wages” and is looking at policies to boost powers to strike and introduce sectoral collective bargaining, limit employer lockouts, impose tougher regulations on casual employment and and crack down on bogus self-employment.

But Jobs & Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dowd attacked “conflict between businesses and their employees” and said: “Sally McManus and Bill Shorten should be promoting co-operation and collaboration, not conflict.”