Unions have warned that electricity consumers will be hit by worse services, reduced maintenance and slower emergency response times, after a decision by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) in late April. The AER decision, which takes effect from July 1, sets revenues that the publicly owned NSW network companies Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy, TransGrid and Essential Energy can charge private power retailers.
Electrical Trades Union of Australia (ETU)
A report commissioned by the Victorian branch of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) shows that energy sector privatisation in Australia has been "a dismal failure", which has produced "no benefits" for consumers, but has resulted in "large fiscal losses" for taxpayers.
Economist John Quiggin, from the University of Queensland, reviewed energy sector privatisation and the related process of electricity market reform between the early 1990s and now, and found no long-term benefits for either governments or consumers.
Electrical Trades Union members around the country are currently voting for national and state union officials. The ballot goes from August 8-29.
Nationally, a team of Howard Worthing, former assistant Victorian secretary, and Greg Wilton, former Western Australia organiser, are challenging incumbent national secretary Peter Tighe and Allen Hicks, for the positions of national secretary and assistant national secretary respectively. Allen Hicks is former Queensland assistant secretary.
Reconnect ETU is running a full ticket against the Victorian incumbent leadership.
In October, Kevin Harkins, a member of the Labor Left, won the ballot to become the new secretary of Unions Tasmania. Harkins was an electrician and then an organiser with the Electrical Trades Union in Victoria, before becoming ETU Tasmanian secretary in 2000. He spoke to 91自拍论坛 Weekly鈥檚 Linda Seaborn.
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The recent Unions Tasmania election was the first contested ballot in years. Can you tell me about that?
Union and community opposition has firmed against Labor Premier Anna Bligh鈥檚 bid to privatise Queensland Rail National (QR), as the government prepares to launch shares in the rail freight corporation on November 22.
QR National, a 140-year-old public asset, will be sold off at an estimated $2.50-$3 a share, raising up to $7.3 billion, ABC鈥檚 Lateline said on October 11.
On September 20, the Courier-Mail reported on its front page that the fire sale of Queensland鈥檚 public assets had 鈥渟hifted into high gear鈥 with the $7 billion float of QR National 鈥 Queensland Rail鈥檚 freight network.
For many union leaders afraid of a Coalition victory on August 21, campaigning against Tony Abbott in the federal election simply means campaigning for Julia Gillard.
With a conservative win on the cards, unions have escalated their pro-ALP campaigning. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) 鈥 which has filled Labor鈥檚 coffers with more than $340,000 for the election campaign 鈥 has enlisted officials for ring-arounds in marginal seats.
On July 17, unionists and residents from Forrest, a small town in the Victorian Otways region, converged on the shire office at Colac to protest against an Optus communications tower being placed in the middle of their town.
The community picket line was established on the site for the new tower two weeks earlier. The community sought support from the construction unions, which it has received from the Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union and the Electrical Trade Union.
The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has banned its members from working in uranium mines, nuclear power stations or any other part of the nuclear fuel cycle, AAP said on May 31.
The union says uranium is the new asbestos in the workplace. The ban will apply to ETU members in Queensland and the Northern Territory and breaching it could lead to expulsion, said ETU Qld secretary Peter Simpson.
On May 10, skilled trades members of the Electrical Trade Union (ETU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union from Geelong and Broadmeadows Ford plants held a 24-hour stoppage.
They were demanding better pay and conditions under their enterprise bargaining agreement (EBA) and took their protest to the street.
Ford wants to freeze the wages of all fixed-term employees at the current (2008) level one entry rate ($986.65 a week).
The company did not verify the length of its proposed wage freeze.
In protests around the country on Workers Memorial Day, April 28, thousands of workers came out to remember those killed on the job and to protest against the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).
Speakers pointed out that since the ABCC was formed, deaths in the construction industry had risen from 3.14 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2004, to 4.27 in 2008. The rate peaked in 2006, at 5.6.
The Rudd government鈥檚 home insulation program, under which four workers died and there have been 120 house fires, also came under attack.
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