Electrical Trades Union Victorian Secretary Troy Gray wrote this statement on the ETU Facebook page on February 6.
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Australian Workers Union Secretary Paul Howes is slitting the throat of Australian workers for his own political ambitions.
Recent headline grabbing statements by Howes have more to do with his naked ambition to be a politician and his resolve to distance himself from the AWU skeletons, than any attempt to improve the lives of working people or his own members.
For a unionist to take a cap in hand approach to a conservative government, an approach destined to fail, is a betrayal of the gains and improved living standards that have been won by hard working unions and their members. Making these statements while the Abbott government's attacks on workers rights are in full swing, threatens years of struggle for decent working conditions and the family values they underpin.
If this is the best example of union leadership in an industrial environment that threatens all working people, then we are damned. It is time for the union movement to take a stand and come out on the front foot and fight for Australian workers — not to roll over and concede lower living standards. The fact is that labour productivity has risen and unit labour costs have fallen as a share of profits in this country.
If there was ever a time for elected representatives to defend working people’s rights and living standards, now is that time. Full credit to Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt for his strong rebuttal of Howes’ stance.
Paul Howes has as much chance of bringing the union movement to a "grand compact” as I have of flying backwards to Mars naked on a pig.