Five planks: a letter from Bob Carnegie

This year MUA members in Queensland vote for a new State Secretary of the union. It is an important choice. It has to be an informed choice.
The information circulated to all members is limited, by election rule, to a 100-word statement from each candidate.
For candidates already in office, this is not too big a problem. Members will know about them already. New candidates need to make an extra effort to give information.
Some members will know me, because I was an activist in the Seamen’s Union of Australia and the MUA from 1981 to 1998, and Queensland MUA Branch Organiser from 1994 to 1998. Newer members will not. That is why I am writing this letter.

I am standing on five planks.

1. To bring the union back to its rank and file roots. I give an unconditional commitment that all stevedoring worksites in the port of Brisbane will see an elected official at least twice a week and the branch secretary at least once a week.
Throughout Queensland there will be regular visits at all major ports. Ships under the responsibility of the Queensland branch will see a union official on a timely basis.
Nothing is more important for union officials than to be constantly in touch with and accountable to the rank and file. Nothing is more important for a union than that the rank and file can always communicate with, get straight answers from, and mandate the officials.

2. To establish genuine democracy in the union, which includes rotation of elected officials.

3. To defend the rights of MUA delegates with all the industrial, legal, financial and political might of the branch. As long as delegates can be sacked with impunity by stevedoring, port or shipping operators, the members who elected those delegates do not have effective union representation. That will stop.

4. To fight an unwavering battle against casualisation. The current levels of casualisation create crippling uncertainty for young and old workers and undermine union organisation. I will make sure that the branch strives to develop permanency of employment.

5. Branch officials should primarily spend their time in developing campaigns and representing MUA members in Queensland, not parading around the world stage like half-witted international playboys.

Posted in: Uncategorized