Union delegate punished for GLW article

Kerry Smith, Canberra

Following the publication of his article, "Unions ACT changes protest plans", in Green Left Weekly #636, Community and Public Sector Union member Paul Oboohov was informed on August 10 via email that CPSU ACT secretary Graham Rodda had withdrawn his endorsement for Oboohov to be on the Unions ACT industrial relations campaign committee.

This followed a decision by the Unions ACT executive to declare Oboohov's GLW article a "breach of solidarity" with the committee. The article had reported that the Unions ACT rally scheduled to be held at 8.30am on August 9 in front of Parliament House, had been relocated several kilometres away in Garema Place, Civic, and rescheduled to begin at 9am.

"As a union delegate on the campaign committee, I was unable to convince the other committee members to agree to a lunchtime rally to maximise participation", Oboohov had written. "Unions ACT has also not attempted to facilitate involvement from interstate unionists in the protest.

"Unions ACT has a major case of paranoia about organising anything that might possibly lead to a repeat of the August 19, 1996, rally prior to the passage of the Workplace Relations Act, when frustrated workers stormed the doors of parliament. This is why Unions ACT shies away from building any event that might be too large to control."

Rodda's disendorsement of Oboohov from participation in the committee "now leaves it without representation of any ordinary union delegate or member", Oboohov told GLW.

From Green Left Weekly, August 24, 2005.

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From GLW issue 639