Winter Issue 2009 - cfmeu

P O L I T I C A L N E W S
Labor lose heartland of working class
After 85 years the
WA Labor Party
loses its jewel in
the crown.
For those of you who attended the
great event that was May Day 2009
you may have noticed that there
was a small group of people in red
shirts standing around an even
smaller table. The group had come
along for the day to support Peter
Tagliaferri, the Labor Party’s
endorsed candidate for the state
seat of Fremantle, and raise his
profile amongst the trade union
movement before the May byelection.
As the Mayor of the City of
Fremantle Tagliaferri is well known in
the Fremantle area, but he is not
widely known to the members of
Western Australia’s trade unions. If
Tagliaferri and his team were
genuinely interested in those he
would be working alongside, the
effort would have been made to
mingle into the crowds and get to
know some of the hardworking
people that are proud union
members. Instead the Tagliaferri
team manned a small stall during
the morning and joined the midday
march but afterwards they were
nowhere to be seen. This is not a
good thing for someone who wants
to hold a seat in Parliament
representing the interests of the
workers. The Australian Services
Union claimed that Tagliaferri allowed
a non-union agreement for staff that
paid new employees 10 per cent less
Jim McGinty’s
lasting legacy;
Turned
Fremantle from
a Labor Party
stronghold into
a marginal seat.
for doing the same jobs as the
existing workers! Whilst Tagliaferri
has denied any involvement in the
agreement negotiation it is not a good
way to attempt a career as a Labor
Member of Parliament. On the flip
side to this, Tagliaferri’s opposing
party, the Greens, also had a stall at
May Day. A stall that was in place
before, during and after the march
allowing them the chance to meet all
those who had come out for the day
to celebrate the rights of workers.
With the result of the May 16th
election, there is every chance that
the May Day exposure gave the
Greens some extra support from the
Fremantle community that allowed
them to claim victory in the long
standing Labor stronghold. We
wonder if the ‘ALP May Day Team’
spent the day canvassing support
from talking to people from the ‘Freo
wharf to the Markets’ or did they all
disappear?
FOOTNOTE: It is Interesting that
GREENS have a policy to totally
get rid of the ABCC. (see Senator
Rachel Siewert’s Anti-ABCC policy
in the links section of our website
at www.cfmeuwa.com). Given the
working class background of
Fremantle, could it be that the
ALP’s inaction towards aspects of
Howard’s Workchoices, especially
the ABCC, had a bearing on this
surprising result? Guess Rudd will
find out in 2010!
Construction Worker – Winter 2009 Page 21
CFMEU