TUC solidarity with Australian construction unions

Australia

Anti-union laws

28 November 2008

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has sent the following message to the Australian Council of Trade Unions over the charges (eventually dropped) against building workers' union representative Noel Washington - see http://www.rightsonsite.org.au/ for more information.

'The TUC sends solidarity to our colleagues in the Australian trade union movement.

'While we welcome the decision to drop charges against construction union official Noel Washington for refusing to inform on his fellow trade unionists, we remain appalled that such charges could even be brought in a democratic society.

'We support the call by the ACTU for a fairer and more balanced system of workplace relations, including the abolition of the anti-worker Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

'Anyone proposing such a body in the UK should look at the lesson of the Australian election last year which saw anti-worker laws rejected, along with the Government that introduced them, by the Australian electorate.'