A Voice for Members, a rank-and-file ticket in the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) elections, is campaigning on a platform that priortises membership-led involvement in the union. The elections opened on June 10 and run until July 4.
This rank-and-file ticket, the first in 32 years to challenge the incumbent union leadership, is fielding activists in every union position.
Mitch Vandewerdt-Holman, candidate for Assistant Secretary told Green Left in a interview on 3CR Community Radio that the ticket was formed because of the leadership’s lack of transparency and democratic structures.
He said “members didn’t know who their delegates or organisers were” and that in the lead up to an enterprise agreement there had been “little to no consultation” with the membership about the demands.
The ticket is campaigning for a leadership that is prepared to fight the proposed government cuts to the public sector.
Voice for Members’ policy platform includes increasing membership participation, taking a stand on social justice, the right to organise and better conditions for all.
It is also highlighting public sector workers’ right to participate in public life, without government overreach. Public sector workers members have been threatened with disciplinary action after signing statements in support of Palestine. Vandewerdt-Holman said members did not receive enough support from the leadership when this happened.
Public sector workers who have taken a stand in support of Palestine have also faced push back from the union leadership, including attempts to red-bait them on emails which were found to have been linked to a CPSU staff employee account.
Vandewerdt-Holman said that the incumbents had also been dishonest about their own political affiliation; at least 12 are members of Labor.
One of the major political issues driving the Voice for Members ticket is the fact the 2024 enterprise agreement led to a loss in wages and conditions. It is also concerned about Victorian Labor’s Silver Review proposal to cut up to 3000 jobs.
Voice for Members has formed a counter-proposal, the Gold Review, which proposes to make savings elsewhere but which preserves public sector jobs. It says public money can be saved without cutting the public service
Mitch Vandewerdt-Holman described Labor's proposed job cuts as “misplaced austerity”, adding that a Voice for Members is not only pushing for better wages and conditions, it has “solutions” to the public sector budget squeeze.
Asked about drawing lessons from the campaign Vandewerdt-Holman said an “important one is to have a platform that brings members together around the values of unionism, and policy that addresses both servicing members and democracy in the union”.
[The CPSU Victoria elections end on July 4. Check A Voice for Members website for more information.]