AWU and the Tarkine

Tarkine activist Scott Jordan has accused the Minerals Council and the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) of giving misleading information to West Coast mining residents in a bid to support the pro-mining campaign.

Mr Jordan said he received feedback that Paul Howes, the AWU National Secretary, told workers to support the mining campaign otherwise they would face losing their jobs.

"Representatives, including Mr Howes himself, have been at the Savage River and Rosebery work sites telling workers that if they don't support the campaign for mining in the Tarkine they are all going to lose their jobs, which is a ridiculous statement," Mr Jordan said.

"There is a bit of straw man stretch going on where they don't want to fight an argument over whether or not wilderness areas like the Tarkine should be mined so they run a strategy of trying to convince people in work places that really aren't effected by this campaign that they are all going to lose their jobs."

Mr Jordan believed the AWU providing such information was not a recent trend. "Certainly over the last 18 months it has been a very common theme that has been coming up both from the Minerals Council and from Mr Howes' campaign through the AWU," he said.