Australian Union leaders have disproportionate influence and hold a power sway over the federal government due to back room deals indulged in by right wing factional leaders of the trade union movement.
Many decent hard working union officials have known this for many years, but now the best kept secret in town has been revealed via leaked confidential American diplomatic cables
Health Services Union national secretary Kathy Jackson claimed that “she and other union secretaries wield at least as much influence as junior ministers … by controlling who is elected to parliament“.
Whoa there girl, is this the same Kathy Jackson that heads the infamous health services union that has been rocked by scandals of sexual misbehaviour, credit card misuse such as charging for escort services using members’ money, exclusive dining at very expensive restaurants, sexual and physical assaults on any member that challanges the status quo within this moribound organisation.
This is the most disfunctional and corrupt union that I have witnessed in my 45 years as an active trade unionist.
Take into account that the infighting within this union resulted in the former Victorian state secretary Jeff Jackson and his loyal sidekick, Shaun Hudson, recently being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to stay away from the union.
Read my earlier blog titled {Which Union?} to see the depths Kathy Jackson has allowed this once good union to sink to .
All for her own power and for the sake of the right wing factions in the ALP. As general secretary she is paid in excess of $175,000 per year while the members of her union try to survive on the lowest wages possible, yet they are still required to pay up to $10 per week on union dues.
Three years ago she was elected by her factional collegues to the position of vice president of the Victorian Trades Hall Council, a very powerful and influential position representing workers in Victoria, regrettably this was an honorary position and she only turned up for 1 meeting in 2 years
Yet she still has the ear of the Australian Labor party and American consular officials.
Mark Arbib lead the assasination of then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd having previously elevated him to the position through corrupt deals done behind closed doors.
It is now known that Arbib has been having secret meetings with American embassy officials for a number of years and the dirty deal done dirt cheap in collusion with the Americans resulted in the coup to dump Rudd and replace him with Gillard. If that doesn’t take you back to the sacking of Whitlam in 1975 nothing will. I’m surprised that after stabbing Rudd in the back he didn’t run off to his political masters to see if Rudd could be charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
Mark Arbib is an elected member of the Australian parliament and paid a salary by the Australian taxpayers. Taxpayers who elected him expect that he do just that, not be a snivelling rat who, at the first opportunity, runs off to his political masters for his own self aggrandisment.
Another little political nobody is Richard Marles, former assistant secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and now Labor parliamentry secretary who just couldn’t wait to get to the happy hour at the American embassy to inform them that he has “a close relationship ” with unions.
Maybe the embassy didn’t get that year’s copy of the trade union directory its freely available
It’s interesting that before being bumped into parliament by factional deals, I was invited into Richard Marles office to conduct a interview. Well you could have knocked me over with a wet tram ticket. On the walls of his office were at least four large American flags, pictures of JFK, Jackie and a large framed portrait of Theodore Roosevelt.
Not one picture of workers that he was entrusted to represent. That’s right folks, not a dicky bird.
People such as Marles use the trade union movement as a stepping stone to get what they crave in life – power and more power. I could name 20 people who have abused the working class in order to achieve their life long goals by falsly claiming allegience to the union movement, or who get bumped into parliament after they have fallen out with their unions leaders only to be foisted onto the Australian public.
Cesar Melham the Victorian secretary of the Australian Workers Union, was quoted in the secret cables how “the AWU works diligently to place its own members in parliamentary positions at both state and federal level including Bill Shorten” . This says to me that no matter how smart or how dumb, if you belong to the right faction you will be looked after by the corrupt officials in the union movement or the political rats and traitors in the Labor party
.
We of course cant forget the other back room traitors such as “Big” Billy Shorten and Senator David Feeney along with Mark Arbib for organising the Rudd coup.
Naivete is one of my best traits because I still believe in a parliamentary democracy, in that the citizens of Australia chose their Prime Minister not some grubs in a back room deal.
Irene Webber says
Thanks for you info. could not understand why he even tried to sue them because it was one Ms Jackson who tipped the bucket on him. Anyhow, if he lost the libs. would have had a field day and probably would have lost his seat and then what would have happened to the ALP. Wonder who paid his legal bills?????
Irene Webber says
Denis, any news on Craig Thomson or have the ALP paid to keep it hush hush. Also heard from someone who works at Worksafe that they are outsourcing it, bloody hell, work OH&S is bad now, imagine if it gets into public hands
Glen says
Very sad to see this. I was a member for around 7 years in 2 hospitals,and a delegate for 6 and a bit years. Very different union now, just a vehicle for ALP boys and girls. Sad,
Glen!
Irene Webber says
Yes Denis and then they should concentrate on the ex Secretary of No. 1, he is not too clean either
The Bagman says
Dear Irene, The matter was before the courts in NSW in December last year, the decision is pending .It will be very interesting if Fairfax are successful in their defence of the defamation action .
Denis
Irene Webber says
Notice everything has gone very very quiet on the court case where Craig Thomson was suing Fairfax. Madam J was up to her neck handing the documents over/
The Bagman says
Hello comrade, yes its true but none of it is your fault,you led a great union of which you can be proud,
it really is a shame about how the right union factions have completely destroyed the integrity of a once
great union .I will reveal more later on. I am sure you will agree that the members of the HSUA are the
only ones to suffer. Jan I would love to keep in touch with you because I know you to be one of few
union officials left to have retained your honesty and integrety ,the union could really do with your
leadership now
Jan Armstrong says
Oh Denis this is the saddest thing I have ever read it seems unbelieveable that I am reading this apalling material about the (formally) best union in Australia I ever had the greatest privilege to lead. I hope that any HSUA Member reading this message can take courage in the fact that members can change the leadership and therefore the direction of this once great union.
Irene Webber says
Also, the HSU do not look after their members, when your privacy has been so badly invaded, what do they do, nothing. If there are no computers at your workplace and you bring in your own laptop (remember you had been working there for 14 years), and somebody requests the IT Department to mirror the contents of the drive, with personal information about the person and her husband, IT refuses and then he copies it on to disks. Lodged a grievance, got letter of apology that everything had been taken off the network server, only to be told 2-1/2 years later that it is still there. Was working at the HSU at the time of this, and did they do anything about it – jackshit.
I personal took it to the Privacy Commission and won the case, and a letter of regret was written. Still pissed off and intend to take legal action against the person who did it – yes he was Management
Irene Webber says
Dennis, very good article. This is the same union who did nothing for the PANCH
employees – oh yes they promised they would lodge a class action – because of the health problems – did it happen – no. You see there is a conflict of interests about who was working at PANCH and who was on the Darebin council and it would not look good for the HSU and their political ambitions. Well, the union did not help but there is such a thing as the power of the people. We are sick of going to funerals for friends who worked there