[This letter was sent by Craig Johnston, elected Victorian state secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union to John Speight, AMWU Victorian state president and all Victorian AMWU state councillors on September 2. A copy was sent to AMWU national secretary Doug Cameron and the acting national secretary Dave Harrison.]
It is with great
regret that I hereby tender my resignation from the office of Victorian
state secretary of the union, effective 11am on September 2, 2002.
My team and I were overwhelmingly elected because the rank and file wanted officials who would have a red hot go, and not bow and scrape to the bosses.
I am proud of our record of doing that for the members. It's because of our record that the bosses have set out to destroy me and wrench control of the branch from the rank and file.
Cameron, [AMWU national president Julius] Roe, [acting state secretary Dave] Oliver and their ilk have shown over the past years their total incompetence in representing the members' industrial interests. They are driven by their lust for power and political prominence, hoping for high political office in the future. In contrast, I and our Victorian elected officials have delivered the best wages and conditions in our union anywhere in Australia. The members' interests are always paramount. That is, we always put workers first.
For this crime, we have been attacked by the boss, both the state and federal governments, and their lackeys, Cameron and Co. The interests of the members must always be at the forefront and I hope by my resignation that in the subsequent election, members will vote for our endorsed candidates against any Cameron puppet. This will be a referendum of whether members want a strong, militant, progressive union, or a tamecat corporate union led by people who put their political ambitions before workers' welfare.
Cameron and his cronies have demonstrated that they will stop at nothing to damage and discredit the Victorian branch. We have seen the disgusting use of false allegations of sexual misconduct in circumstances where despite my full cooperation in the police investigation, no charges have been laid. Cameron has sacked and sued officials who happen to have a different opinion to him. As if all that is not enough, he's now trying to have officials and rank and file members of the union locked up for contempt. Never before in the history of the union movement in this country has a union official turned upon another official using this filthy bosses' tactic. Cameron is the John Kerr of the union movement.
The attacks upon me, and the Victorian branch by Cameron, Roe and Oliver are continuing. There is no doubt that these attacks are seriously damaging the branch and its members. There is no sign that Cameron will end his campaign to destroy the Victorian Branch while I remain as state secretary.
The union belongs to the members. I have always tried to do what's best for the members, and it is with this in mind that I feel I have no choice but to resign, to enable the elected State Council to take the branch back out of the hands of Cameron's unelected puppet Oliver. It will also give the members a chance to again voice their will at an election. In these ways, my resignation will make it harder for the megalomaniac Cameron to further attack the Victorian branch, its elected leadership and its membership.
Yours in unity,
Brother Craig Johnston, elected state secretary, AMWU Victoria.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 11, 2002.
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