Officials from the NSW Public Service Association (NSW PSA) were conspicuously absent from the historic March for Humanity on August3, which many unions endorsed and mobilized their members for.
While the NSW PSA has endorsed the Australian Council of Trade Union’s statements on Palestine, the leadership does not support members taking anti-war initiatives around Israel’s genocide.
Hundreds of members have joined, supported or liked the PSA Unionists for Palestine Group, sharing its social media posts. They also marched with the other 300,000 people over the Harbour Bridge, with their flags and banners.
The PSA’s leadership, which is close to Labor, attempted to use members’ concerns about Gaza to try and discredit its opponents in the recent elections.
The election of delegates to the State Public Service Federation/Community and Public Sector Union NSW Branch, a PSA body which provides the union with a national structure, has just finished.
The Rank and File incumbents were challenged by the Members Coalition (MC) for president, three vice presidents and 10 branch councillors. The Rank and File’s official how-to-vote incorrectly described the MC team as “MC — PSA for Palestine”, despite it being a diverse group of activists and delegates, including Labor members.
MC’s focus is on union democracy, including those who take seriously the message on the poster that hangs in the PSA’s main meeting room: “Peace is union business”.
The results on August 15 confirmed that MC’s Deanne Hill from TAFE won a vice president position and three other MC members won branch council positions: Ellen Hrebeniuk, Kim Spurway and Ed Kirby. MC member Nicholas Wright from TAFE also won a third of the vote for president, running against prison officer Nicole Jess.
[Steve O’Brien is outgoing Vice President of the SPSF/CPSU NSW Branch.]