Australian Government seizes on 'scam' union deals

Peter "Australian: therefore a liar and a cunt"
Posts: 542 Joined: 09-03-06 Location: Canberra
Submitted by Peter on 25 September, 2007 - 00:06.

Look at how awesome 'my' union is.

News Limited wrote:

Quote:
Government seizes on 'scam' union deals

THE Federal Government has seized on a claims that a powerful trade union has sold out its members for millions of dollars in secret kickbacks.

Prime Minister John Howard led today's charge at the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and was quick to highlight the union's strong links with Labor and Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd.

Describing the TWU deals as a "scam", Mr Howard said the union had been caught out in a conspiracy with companies to rob workers of their entitlements.

"The union itself has denied benefits for workers, and I think Mr Rudd has to answer some questions about this because the TWU is a major donor to the Australian Labor Party," he said.

Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey weighed in soon after, promising a government investigation to get to the bottom of the claims aired in a Channel 9 report today.

Mr Hockey said there could be tax and corporations law breaches involved with the scam, the money from which is used to employ Labor party staffers.

"The secret (TWU) fund made up of dirty money is going straight into the coffers of the Labor Party," Mr Hockey said.

"According to allegations made today, this fund is being well-oiled by unions negotiating for lower pay for workers."

The TWU was itself investigating one of its deals with a labour hire firm that rank-and-file members said led to pay cuts of about 30 per cent, Nine reported.

But what angered TWU members most was their discovery that a separate, unregistered contract between the TWU and the company provides for substantial payments to be made into a shadowy union 'training fund'.

It was the scale and extent of these payments across an industry which shocked the union's members.

"We are not talking about a couple of hundred dollars or a couple of thousand dollars here. We're talking about millions," a senior union official told Nine.

The union said the payments into this fund were fully accounted for and above board.

But Nine said the payments went far beyond the one company.

The union had received millions of dollars from employers into its training fund for more than a decade, its report said.

The union leadership was now facing a rebellion in the ranks.

bozemananarchy
Posts: 282 Joined: 28-12-06 Location: Missoula Montana
25 September, 2007 - 06:18

Whats your take on the last line of the article Peter? Overstated/understated, true/false?

thugarchist "Warning: This poster is recuperating our struggle!!!11"
Posts: 4114 Joined: 26-11-06 Location: Seattle, WA US of A
25 September, 2007 - 06:30

http://p-crac.blogspot.com/2007/09/imbeciles-down-under.html

OliverTwister "Tied directly to Bekken and the Philly camp"
Posts: 2204 Joined: 10-10-05 Location: San Francisco, USA
25 September, 2007 - 06:37
Quote:
"We are not talking about a couple of hundred dollars or a couple of thousand dollars here. We're talking about millions," a senior union official told Nine.

? eek

Peter "Australian: therefore a liar and a cunt"
Posts: 542 Joined: 09-03-06 Location: Canberra
25 September, 2007 - 23:19
bozemananarchy wrote:
Whats your take on the last line of the article Peter? Overstated/understated, true/false?

No sign of a rebellion in the ranks at my work, don't hear very much about the rest of the union. However as the only city bus drivers in a union that is mostly truckies we're a bit of an oddity in the TWU.

grrregg "rent this space"
Posts: 747 Joined: 22-09-06 Location: the sticks, queensland
26 September, 2007 - 00:37
Quote:
The union leadership was now facing a rebellion in the ranks.

Can't see it myself. If the rallies relating to the union's Your Rights At Work - Worth Fighting For (then changed to Worth Voting For) were anything to go by then the union leadership is sitting pretty. I think that the average union member - membership ever shrinking - at the rallies in Queensland anyway, were some of the most disappointing apathetic bunch of people I've ever seen. I never heard of union bosses or their Labor party mates being challenged by workers at all despite both the unions and Labor having consistantly sold out workers for years. Now the new Labor party leader has basically stated that the Industrial Relations changes that the Your Rights At Work campaign were fighting, will pretty much be signed off as is if Labor get in at the election this year. Wankers.