SYDNEY — At a May 10 Defend Our Unions public forum at the Gaelic Club in Sydney, attended by 60 people, it was unanimously decided to launch a cross-union defence committee to oppose the federal Coalition government's anti-union laws.
The public forum was addressed by Bob Treasure, a member of the NSW Teachers Federation state executive and spokesperson for Promotion of Public Education; Michelle Sparks, president of the University of Technology Sydney Student Association and Susan Price, a member of the National Tertiary Education Union's state executive. Dave Noonan, assistant national secretary of the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, who was unable to attend, sent remarks by emailed that were read out to the forum.
On May 21, 30 union activists from 11 unions gathered at the Gaelic Club, in Surry Hills, to begin organising cross union networks and discuss strategies to build a union defence campaign in NSW.
Sibylle Kaczorek
From Green Left Weekly, June 1, 2005.
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