The Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) is today calling on the Federal Government to re-think free trade negotiations currently underway and reject an employer push to turbo charge the 457 visa program, in the face of ever rising youth unemployment.
New figures out today from the ABS show that, whilst the headline national unemployment rate dropped slightly, youth unemployment continues to move upwards to unacceptable levels.
Youth unemployment is now 12.6% nationally, the highest it has been since 2002. It has risen in each of the last consecutive 6 months.
CFMEU National Secretary Michael O’Connor said today that young people in Australia were being let down.
“Currently our Government is negotiating free trade agreements where they intend to give greater access to our markets to countries such as China, which we have consistently argued is not a market economy.
“This flies in the face of all available evidence that shows that lower tariffs will make us even more vulnerable to dumping and products that don’t meet our standards while our competitors continuously subsidise their industries and use non-tariff trade barriers to keep our exports out.
“Going down this route will spell disaster for manufacturing jobs.
”In addition, they have explicitly and deliberately placed the bringing in of foreign nationals to work in Australia on the negotiating table.
“Equally, there will be a sustained push by employers over the next few months to return to the bad old days of a de-regulated 457 visa scheme allowing tens of thousands more temporary overseas workers in to Australia to work, displacing young people who need a start in the job market
“How can these policies possibly be justified in the context of a growing youth unemployment problem?
The top line national figures released today also of course don’t capture effectively the huge problem with youth unemployment in some regional and rural communities.
“That Tony Abbott wants to rush into a swathe of free-trade agreements and that employers want to abolish any requirement to try and place Australians in Australian jobs in Australia, in the face of these youth unemployment figures, is a national disgrace.”
No comments:
Post a Comment