Unionists rallied outside the United States Consulate on May 7 calling for an end to the US bombing of Iran. They also highlighted the great cost of US wars on Australian workers.
The protest was organised by the Peace is Union Business coalition, which includes the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), NSW Teachers Federation (NSWTF) and the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA).
“Unions have always had a crucial role to play in opposing war. Working people are the ones sent to fight wars, the ones whose public services are cut to fund them, and the ones who pay the economic price through higher costs and greater insecurity,” the coalition said.
“The US bombing of Iran is not only a threat to peace, it is also a direct threat to workers’ living standards. Australian workers didn’t choose President Donald Trump’s war and they should not be made to pay for it.”
Dr Damien Cahill, NTEU General Secretary, said: “Workers across Australia are being forced to pay the price for Trump’s illegal war on Iran. The war is driving up cost of living and interest rates and driving down living standards.”
Natasha Watt, NSWTF deputy president, said: “Teachers work hard every day to educate and provide hope to their students against the backdrop of an increasingly unsettled world impacted by war, increasing military spending and illegal military action.”
She said teachers know the impact of war on children and their families who have close ties to the countries where war and genocide are being waged. “Many are fleeing war-ravaged countries and have been displaced for years … This worsening global instability and the subsequent increased burden of the cost-of-living crisis falls squarely on the families of all workers, including teachers.”
Arthur Rorris, Secretary of the South Coast Labour Council, said Trump’s bombing of Iran has a flow on effect to regional Australia where workers are forced to pay the price.
“Trump’s fingerprints are on every petrol pump, supermarket checkout, and mortgage rate rise in the country. He is enemy number 1 of the Australian worker,” Rorris said.
Warren Smith, Deputy National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia, said the $380 billion being wasted on AUKUS submarines is “designed to provoke conflict”. Those same funds “could fund a nationally owned shipping fleet 250 times over — a fleet that actually helps us cope with the damage done by our warmongering US ally.
“Real security comes from jobs, housing, food, clean water, education, health care, democratic rights and peaceful coexistence with the peoples of the region.”
