Steve O'Brien

  • Our unions support social equality for all Australians

    Fifty years ago building worker activists took back control of their union, the NSW Builders Labourers Federation (BLF), from a leadership clique that ignored the members. Under the new leadership of , the re-energised BLF created high standards for workplace safety, decent pay, union democracy, accountable leadership, community engagement and, most famously, Green Bans.

  • Bernie Sanders and his example for Australian voters

    At a talk given at the Newcastle Resistance Centre in the mid-1980s, visiting US activist Peter Camejo mentioned that a socialist, Bernie Sanders, had just been re-elected Mayor of the largest city in the state of Vermont. Camejo described his meeting with Sanders in the Burlington City Hall. Banners were stacked in the corner and posters in solidarity with the Third World and women's, black and labour struggles decorated the walls. “It was just like being in an activist centre like this,” he quipped.

  • Real jobs are the real issue this election

    The silence around jobs in the NSW election is deafening. Newcastle has been losing 200 jobs a year from the sale of state assets and the casualisation and retrenchment of state employees. Up to 8000 workers in jobs such as fitters, boilermakers, welders, riggers and trades assistants in ship building and rail manufacture are also under threat. Both major parties are focusing on other issues instead of the Hunter region’s jobs.

  • Don’t be fooled by Mike Baird’s sell-off spin

    The other night the phone rang. I picked it up and a recorded voice said something like “The NSW Premier Mike Baird isn’t going to lease the state’s electricity assets. He’s not going to sell them. He is going to create jobs. Don’t be fooled.” Indeed, I thought. This happened on the same day that the Hunter Valley’s unemployment rate topped 10% and set a 10-year record. The link between unemployment and privatisation is so obvious that Baird can’t say the “P” word. Gladys Berejiklian, Baird’s Minister for the Hunter, is also coy about the “P” word.

  • Contesting Baird’s contestability

    NSW premier Bruce Baird was confronted by 200 TAFE students, teachers and supporters when he visited Newcastle’s Hamilton TAFE campus on February 16. His visit was to inaugurate the offices of the Hunter Business Chamber, which have been relocated to Hamilton TAFE. Significantly, the old TAFE signage out the front of the campus has been replaced with a sign that reads “Australian Business Apprenticeship Centre”.

  • Doorknocking against privatisation in Newie

    There is obviously volatility in the Australian electorate. I gained an insight into that new mood last weekend when I went doorknocking in Raymond Terrace as part of the NSW Public Service Association’s (PSA) campaign against privatisation. The PSA was not advocating a vote for any party except to ask people to put concerns about privatisation up front when they vote in the NSW elections of March 28.

  • Members win back public service union

    The Progressive PSA (PPSA) team has won important victories in elections for the 43,000-member NSW Public Service Association (PSA). PPSA member Anne Gardiner won the top position of General Secretary, and PPSA candidates took all positions on the 45-member Central Council. A recount will be held for other executive positions following an extremely close vote.

  • NSW public servants debate pay deal

    A fierce controversy has broken out in the NSW Public Service Association (PSA) over the union’s recent pay award. The dispute occurs as the union’s 43,000 members receive voting papers for seven executive members and 45 central councillors.