The Rosemouth Hotel bar was overflowing on February 22 with 150 people supporting the launch of the Members First ticket for the United Workers Union (UWU) election which is expected to take place over April-May.
Cristy Cain, the former Construction Forestry Maritime Employees Union National Secretary welcomed the development, noting the importance of grassroots tickets like this one to help reverse the decline in the union movement.
Louise Dillon, a hospitality worker and former UWU organizer, is running for the WA Secretary position on the ticket. She spoke about her campaigning experience as an organiser in strikes relaying anecdotes about the Inghams Chickens factory strikes in 2020 and 2023.
The 2020 strike was organised after a unionist was fired for stopping a conveyor belt which was set at an unsafe speed. The bosses threatened people with the sack, but they continued their industrial action over health and safety issues. The sacked worker was reinstated before Dillon was able to lodge an unfair dismissal case on his behalf.
“The workers did the only thing workers can do and they won because they stuck together,” Dillon said.
The 2023 strike took place during a period of protected action when they were bargaining for their enterprise agreement. Dillon said she feared it was going to fail in WA when the larger factory in South Australia, also on strike, struck a deal.
She said the solidarity the SA workers showed in unanimously rejecting the deal until it was extended to cover all workers on strike, including at the WA factory, was “what we need to build”.
“They won, but they didn’t win until we had all won. That is the promise of our union.”
John Garang, a delegate at the Perth Woolworths Distribution Centre, who is running for the UWU National Convention, spoke about the union’s lack of transparency. He criticised the union donating $9 million to the Labor campaign group Political Power and said it was made without members being consulted.
UWU executive director Godfrey Moase spoke about the importance of member-led unions, especially as it seems the far right is gaining traction in Australia.
He said a far-right government “will not hesitate to kidnap ordinary people off the streets … and label unionists as terrorists. It will try to use its new found authority to kill the idea of an independent trade union movement. This is why now we must take a stand for a free and independent trade union movement.”
The UWU campaign includes an eight-point plan for a more democratic union, including creating a strike fund, independence from the Labor Party and organising in the regions.
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