Thanks to all NUW members for helping achieve an outstanding Federal Election result
Wednesday November 28, 2007
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Former NUW Delegate and successful Marginal Seat Coordinator for Makin Tim Palmer (who helped achieve an 8% swing in the seat), Cindy O'Connor successful coordinator in Bass and Jill Batt successful coordinator in Braddon came into the NUW to thank Paul Richardson, Alex McIntosh and the entire union for its assistance during the campaign
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Australian workers voted for a return to fairness and equity in the workplace with the landslide ALP victory in the Federal Election last weekend.
Billed as a referendum on the Howard Government’s extreme WorkChoices legislation, Australian workers left the Liberal and National parties in no doubt as to what they thought, handing an overwhelming victory to Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and the ALP team.
And the NUW, and union movement in general, played no small part in that victory.
Over the past three years the NUW, in conjunction with the ACTU and other unions, has worked tirelessly as part of the Your Rights at Work campaign, to inform our members about the WorkChoices laws and just what they needed to do to get rid of them – get rid of the Howard Government.
This year in particular we have been busy phone-polling our members in marginal seats, making more than 30,000 phone calls to ask our members what they thought of the laws, and what other issues were concerning them in the lead up to the November 24 poll.
As well hundreds of NUW members volunteered their time to assist in the campaign, putting core flutes up in their gardens, doing letter box drops, door-knocking, handing out how-to-vote cards and much more.
And it reaped great rewards with the ALP winning 20 of the 24 marginal seats targeted as part of the YRAW campaign, and a couple of others were extremely close.
Thank you to all NUW members for their help and support during this three-year fight to get rid of WorkChoices.
There is still a lot more work to do to restore fairness and equity to Australian workplaces, but the largest obstacle – the Howard Government – has been removed.
This was a historic campaign for the Australian union movement and our members and one that we should all be rightly proud.
Thank you all once again.
Below is the ACTU press release lauding the fantastic result on Saturday night.
Australians reject WorkChoices and the Liberals’ attack on unions and workers’ rights
The Australian public has totally rejected WorkChoices and the Liberal and National parties’ attack on unions and workers’ rights.
This is an historic election result that confirms the Australian people believe in a fair go for all and that all Australian workers are entitled to decent rights in the workplace.
ACTU President, Sharan Burrow said:
“The Australian people have totally rejected the vicious anti-union campaign of the Liberal and National Party in this election.
“This election was a referendum on Industrial Relations and WorkChoices has clearly been a major vote shifter.
“The Australian people have said that they want their rights at work protected and respected.
“The Liberal Party and their supporters in the business community should respect this decision, and never again attempt the kind of policy extremism we have seen under this Government.
This extreme attack has been totally rejected by mainstream Australia,” Burrow said.
Last modified 2007-12-04 04:32 PM
