Trade unions break with the ALP
By Melanie Sjoberg
ADELAIDE — Disillusionment with the policies and actions of the Labor Party has been growing amongst ordinary workers since the years of the Accord exposed the true allegiances of ALP parliamentarians. Several of the traditional left trade unions in South Australia have now sent another clear message that workers have had enough.
The ALP left have relied on a strong base amongst blue collar unions, particularly for the financial contributions and the weight the voting bloc provides for the number-crunching game inside party conferences. Three key left unions in South Australia have now disaffiliated from the ALP.
The 20,000-strong Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) broke ranks several months ago. The labourers division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU), with 4000 members, and the Public Transport Union, with 2500 members, have just announced their disaffiliation.
The plumbing division of the Communication, Electrical and Plumbing Union will disaffiliate next month. Another politically and industrially influential union, the Australian Education Union (AEU), is not affiliated.
Reports in the local Advertiser have suggested that the reasons are financial, but the state secretary of the AMWU, Mick Tumbers, described them as political. He said that the ALP is not delivering on policies important to working people and that it was not useful for trade unions to maintain those ties.
He expressed caution about directing support to the Democrats because they had not demonstrated any understanding of workers' issues, especially in relation to the federal Workplace Relations Bill.
CFMEU secretary Ben Carslake indicated that unions could not continue to have credibility with their members if they were tied to the ALP.
Tumbers told Green Left Weekly that although the decision was an important step, it was still a long way from a trade union fight back. He discussed the need for rebuilding a broad left that sought to link union and community struggles.
The AEU successfully fought a campaign against education cutbacks during 1995-96, clearly blaming both state Liberal and Labor governments for the erosion of funding to schools. One of the key strategies was to link community and union action in a broad defence of public education.