Unions gains US ally in Boeing dispute

By Geoff Elliott, Washington Correspondent
The Australian

ACTU president Sharan Burrow and her counterpart John Sweeney, president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organisations, a peak body representing more than 10million workers, met in Washington yesterday.

The union bodies plan to issue a joint statement in the US today that Ms Burrow said would put US-based Boeing on notice that the AFL-CIO was lending its support to ACTU affiliate the Australian Workers Union and its members at Williamtown, near Newcastle, who have been on strike for more than 120 days.

The strike is one of the longest disputes the AWU has had in more than 10 years.

Ms Burrow told The Weekend Australian that the AFL-CIO had agreed it would "do everything it can to pressure the company to go to the bargaining table with the AWU".

Asked if that meant the AFL-CIO would go as far as calling for industrial action in the US against Boeing, Ms Burrow said that was "possible".

She said she had discussed with Mr Sweeney mapping out Boeing sites around the world as the ACTU and the AWU moved to internationalise the dispute.

The ACTU coalition with the AFL-CIO will also establish a shareholder activist campaign to try to up the pressure on Boeing.

The international action comes despite the fact that the dispute centres on just 25 local workers wanting to be covered by a collective agreement rather than individual contracts.

They represent about 7per cent of Boeing's maintenance employees in Australia, who are otherwise covered by individual contracts.

AWU national secretary Bill Shorten, who has been in the US for the past 10 days, in part to meet with Boeing representatives, travelled to Boeing operations in St Louis and Chicago yesterday to present his case to the company.

Asked how his meetings went, Mr Shorten said: "I reserve judgment. They listened."

He said the dispute was harming Boeing's image in Australia, particularly when it was looking to fill orders such as that for the Super Hornet strike fighter jet.

"There will be long-term brand damage for Boeing in Australia," he said.

Mr Shorten's implicit message has been that the Labor movement will also have a long memory - the AWU boss has been touted by many as a potential future Labor prime minister, and has already been given ringing endorsements by state premiers and corporate leaders.

Mr Shorten has also won support from the US machinists union for his workers. The union recently settled a 28-day strike that took out 18,000 workers from Boeing, and was instrumental in opening doors for Mr Shorten to see high-level Boeing executives.

Boeing Australia, chaired by former Liberal leader Andrew Peacock, has been supported by Prime Minister John Howard.

A Boeing spokesman said yesterday that the company was "very concerned that the AWU is using some of our Williamtown employees as part of their political campaign against the federal Government's proposed changes to industrial relations laws".

"This dispute has nothing to do with changes that may occur to industrial laws some time in the future," he said.

"It is happening now under the current system, which has been in place for almost a decade.

"The fact is, the issues that triggered this dispute have already been resolved to the satisfaction of the vast majority of our workforce."

Article from The Australian.

Contact Details
AWU National Office
Ph:  (03) 8327 0888
Fax: (03) 8327 0899
members@awu.net.au
http://www.awu.net.au/