CPSU members reject leadership's funding cut
By Michelle Armstrong
CANBERRA — On July 20, the ACT branch members of the Community and Public Sector Union told the union's joint national secretary, Wendy Caird, that they did not want their branch treated unfairly and without consultation.
The special meeting was called to discuss the July 1 union national office decision that the ACT branch was to lose more funding than any other branch and that many of its major agencies were to be organised by the newly established national office in Canberra.
One hundred delegates, members and staff turned out to the extraordinary branch conference to hear reports from branch secretary Jennifer Eccles and Caird.
Caird reported that the proposal to remove funding from the ACT branch was a trial to see if services to members could be delivered better. She gave no indication, when asked, about how this would be measured or whether funds would be restored to the branch if the trial didn't work.
Much of the debate concerned the lack of consultation on the proposal and whether it would threaten the future of the ACT branch. Many of the questions seemed to annoy Caird. When answering questions about a proposal to allow the ACT branch to pay for a national industrial organiser to work on the ACT government section's enterprise bargaining campaign, Caird abruptly withdrew the offer, leading to rowdy laughs from the conference floor.
ACT government section secretary, Tim Gooden, told Green Left Weekly that he was very disappointed that a national secretary of the union could treat members and delegates with such contempt, especially when these workers are under such massive attack from conservative forces.
Many delegates saw the proposals as an attempt to weaken the ACT branch and give the national office a higher profile. Caird's poor performance on job cuts and the loss of conditions under agency bargaining were criticised.
Caird accused Eccles of providing false information to members about the amount of money the branch was losing and said the $800,000 cited in the branch bulletin was incorrect without saying how much the national office intended to remove from the branch. Not one person spoke in defence of Caird's actions or the national office proposal.
A branch executive motion calling for the national office proposal to be withdrawn and for negotiations to begin on a more equitable funding arrangement was overwhelmingly carried. This was despite a motion put by two DEETYA delegates supporting the national office removing funding from the branch.
An action motion from the ACT government section that the branch executive initiate a public campaign to defend the ACT branch if the funding issue isn't resolved equitably was won by card vote.