NSW delegates’ meeting calls on union leaders to fight

Around 200 people attended a Unions NSW cross-industry delegates meeting on 17 September. Delegates, members and officials met in the Sydney Masonic Centre in the second such meeting organised this year.

Attendees heard about the impact of state and federal anti-worker policies. However, no real strategy was offered to fight these. Instead, officials used the meeting as a launchpad for a vote Labor campaign in the March 2015 NSW state election. Mark Lennon, secretary of Unions NSW, argued for 191 days of electioneering under the slogan “Jobs, rights, services”.

The last 10 minutes of the meeting were opened to general discussion. Delegates who spoke from the floor argued for a serious union campaign to defeat the federal budget and state government privatisation policies. All were well received; none backed the vote Labor strategy.

CFMEU delegate Dennis McNamara called for strikes and street mobilisations to “show that we mean business”. Kate Doherty, PSA delegate, pointed out the hypocrisy of the government’s $500 million spend on Iraq, while Abbott and Hockey lie about a budget crisis.

A motion from the floor, calling on “the ACTU and Unions NSW to organise a Your Rights at Work style campaign including regular mass work-day rallies and stoppages”, passed without dissent.