MUA: Safeguarding Workers in Hostile Political Territory

National Secretary Paddy Crumlin opened Special National Council with no holds barred warning councillors and guests that the onslaught from the conservative Abbott Government was just beginning.

They’re Howard Government Mark Two, Crumlin said, pointing to Abbott’s deliberate industrial agenda.

“Make no mistakes, removal of trade unions is their ultimate agenda,” he said.

“We have to go through an enormous period of trial – our enemies want to knock us out, we don’t have the largesse to sit back and relax.

“But crisis creates opportunity.”

Trade unions were the best placed organisation globally to hit back against neo-liberalism, conservatives and far-right agendas.

The challenge, he said, was for unions to connect with mainstream values and aspiration.

Employers and the Liberal Party have turned out to be just as, if not more, susceptible to corruption and division as the trade union movement and the Labor Party. However, those on the right are not faced with the same media opposition, therefore it was the union’s duty, Crumlin said, to better communicate with the public.

Crumlin said 457s were back on the agenda, along with the Royal Commission, ABCC and the Commission of Audit.

“The Commission of Audit shows their true colours,” he said.