A carpenter by trade, Tim is a shop steward for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and also the assistant secretary of the Geelong Trades Hall Council.
Tim has a long experience of union struggle. He worked in the public service during outsourcing by both Labor and Coalition governments, and was the ACT Government section secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union when workers won a no-forced-redundancy agreement after a protracted fight in 1998-99.
Tim says, “Workers are continually under threat from factory closures and casualisation. Some unions have forgotten how to fight. They roll over too easily for political harmony, while workers' living standards continue to go backwards. Rebuilding unions from the ground up will be critical to the future security of workers’ rights and conditions.
“The waiting list for health services has become unbearable for many. Some schools are in the red, and all are constantly cutting back. Workers have lost trust in the political system. Something new and different is needed. Something that workers are involved in and can control, so that the wealth of the country can be genuinely shared around.”
After several years in the ALP, witnessing sellouts and back flips, Tim reckons, “I now stand with the Socialist Alliance, a principled party that puts the majority interest, that of the workers, before that of big business and the rich.”
From Green Left Weekly, June 30, 2004.
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