ACTU President Ged Kearney address to United Mineworkers Federation Memorial Day
I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet today and pay my respects to elders past and present. It is a privilege to be invited to deliver this address today, back in the heartland of our great union movement.
I would like to acknowledge my hosts here today: Peter Jordan, the District President of the United Mineworkers’ Federation, and Grahame Kelly, the District Secretary.
Tony Maher, the National President of CFMEU Mining and Andrew Vickers, the General Secretary. And members of Parliament both federal and state: Joel Fitzgibbon, Jill Hall and Clayton Barr.
But most importantly, union members, their families and their friends who attend this memorial service every year. This service is for you, and the memory of your lost ones or those whose lives were sacrificed in early generations. We owe it to them to make sure that the workplace is safer for those who came after them.
In addressing this annual commemorative service, I am conscious that I am following in very illustrious footsteps. The Memorial Wall was opened by none other than Paul Keating, then the Prime Minister of Australia, in 1996. Alongside him was Jim Comerford, who would be celebrating his 99th birthday this very day if he was still alive.
And last year, the current Prime Minister, Julia Gillard gave the address. To my great regret, I never had the opportunity to meet Jim Comerford, but I feel like I know him through the legend.
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Jim wanted to be a journalist, but at his father’s insistence began working in the mines at the age of 16. It was an era when boys routinely left school in their early teens for dangerous and difficult jobs. We can be thankful that today child labour is not still used in mining in Australia, another win by the union movement.
He dedicated his life to his workmates, his union and his industry, holding the position of Northern District President of the Miners Federation for several decades.
Sadly, Jim is no longer with us but his legacy lives on with the Jim Comerford Memorial Wall. We are here today to honour the fallen. The more than 1800 men and boys who have lost their lives in the northern district coal mines over more than 200 years.
Every small Australian town has a war memorial, a monument to the young men who went away overseas in the two great wars of last century and did not return. Those war memorials and the services held at them are often the focal point for a community, particularly in rural areas. They carry three words laden with meaning: Lest We Forget.
But it is important we also do not forget those those who have been killed at work. And redouble our efforts to prevent future deaths.
The Hunter Valley plays an important role in the history of the Australian trade union movement. In so many ways, the story of trade unions and working class struggle can be told through the story of the Hunter. It was in Newcastle that the first 8 hour day committee was formed.
Because of the nature of the work, coal mining has always been associated with unionism, and Newcastle was Australia’s first coal port in the early 1800s. And it is still Australia’s, and the world’s biggest coal port.
The first coal mining operations began here as early as 1801, and unionism has been part of the landscape almost the entire time since. From the earliest Lodges, a sense of mateship, camaraderie and collective unity has existed and continues today with union density of almost 90% across the mines of northern NSW.
More http://www.actu.org.au/Media/Mediareleases/ThegrowthofinsecureworkismakingAustralianworkplaceslesssafewarnunions.aspx
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