Activist forced off union body
BY ANTHONY BENBOW
PERTH — The Western Australian branch of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has thrown one of its most conscientious rank-and-file delegates off its delegation to the WA Trades and Labor Council because it is fearful of her political point of view.
Sarah Harris, a Centrelink counter-staff worker and a candidate for the opposition Members First team in elections under way in the union, was a proxy delegate to the TLC for 15 months but, despite putting her name forward again, was removed from this year's delegation.
She says CPSU leaders are suspicious of her willingness to speak out on union issues. "Before each month's meeting I would be phoned and told I wasn't needed as the CPSU had sufficient regular delegates", she told Green Left Weekly. "I'd then attend as an observer and find each time that the CPSU was short and I was able to be seated as a delegate."
Union leaders have criticised Harris for not informing them of issues she planned to raise at TLC meetings. But Harris says, "I made many attempts to caucus with the other union delegates and rang the union office many times — all my efforts were knocked back. In any case, the issues I was raising are hardly contentious — East Timor solidarity and opposing the further privatisation of Telstra."
She believes the real reason for her removal from the delegation is her involvement in Members First, which is challenging for national union leadership positions on a platform which includes greater union democracy and a preparedness to campaign actively for workers' rights. Harris is the Members First candidate for the position of deputy national president.
"I was told to my face by our assistant secretary that I was dumped because I hold political views that are in opposition to those of the CPSU national leadership", she revealed.
Harris plans to continue her involvement in Members First and seek reinstatement to the union's delegation to the TLC.