Where is Bob Baldwin MP?

During that time, AWU members were told by Boeing that they would be refused the right to commence work whilst undertaking a "paper" form of lawful and protected industrial action by refusing to fill in timesheets.

AWU members are now on strike after Boeing has persistently refused to sit down and negotiate a collective agreement for the work that they perform on the upgrade and maintenance of the RAAF's F/A18 fighter jet fleet.

All of these AWU members are part of the broader Newcastle community. Many of them are constituents of Bob Baldwin's electorate of Paterson.

Yet despite visits from many State parliamentarians from the region, NSW Premier Bob Carr, Leader of the Opposition Kim Beazley and Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Grierson, the one person who actually has a voice in the federal government has failed to even show up and meet his constituents on the picket line.

WHO IS THE MISSING POLITICIAN?

Bob Baldwin is the federal Liberal Party member for the seat of Paterson. Without speaking to anyone from the AWU or coming out to speak with AWU members involved in this action against Boeing at the picket line, Bob Baldwin has seen fit to weigh into the whole debate by making completely dubious statements in the local media. Here's an example of some of the things that Bob Baldwin said:-

"Boeing workers have every opportunity to go to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission..."

"But when I see politicians using these workers for their own benefit, encouraging them to stay out on strike, instead of seeking an independent arbiter....that independent arbiter is the Industrial Relations Commission. They have the right and the ability to go there tomorrow and seek a remedy to this problem that they have."

"[indistinct] have just checked with the ministers (sic) office and the industrial commission officer, that the workers can indeed take the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission; it is not a one-way street, it is both for workers and employers to be able to use the Industrial Relations Commission to resolve matters such as this."

The facts are simple. On behalf of its members, the AWU has been to the Australian Industrial Relations Commission three times since March 2005. Because of the type of federal industrial laws that Bob Baldwin supported in 1996, the powers of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to settle this dispute are largely limited in the circumstances of this case.

As a result of Bob Baldwin's public comments, the AWU wrote to him on 29 June 2005 asking that he urgently arrange a meeting with the federal Minister for Workplace Relations so that the AWU could better understand his comments about there being a legal facility available under his government's federal laws to settle this dispute once and for all.

To date, there has been no reply from Bob Baldwin.

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