02 March 2011

chatting with Paul Howes

Well it's been interesting tweeting back and forth with Mr Howes today. I'd encourage some AWU members to get in touch via twitter, as they seem so inept at the usual channels. Maybe you could ask him how you as a member can run for National Secretary...pretty sure they don't directly elect their national leadership - now that's a democratic union huh?

(Paul, correct me if I am wrong - I tried checking out your rules but the FWA website organisations' section is not working)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a load of rubbish - I'm an AWU official and Paul Howes and all of the union's leadership are directly elected by the members in elections conducted by the AEC - this is unlike the CFMEU, the LHMU, the TWU, the SDA and others where the National Secretary is appointed by the union's executive rather than directly elected by the members.

If you're going to bag the AWU you should check your facts first - which are pretty easy to check on the Fair Work website.

Aussie Unionist said...

A. The National secretary of TWU is directly elected by members. See Rule 59. The CFMEU is really three unions in one and the National Secretary has little power. I'm knew that about the SDA. I am surprised to read that about United Voice. I read that the rules for election of officials only commenced in 2009. Was it collegiate before that?

B. I tried checking the rules but the organisation pages were offline (as they often are). I said this in my post. I've had to use Google cache now to get a back door way into the rules pages.

But still, you've made a valid point. I'll try to get more info next time

Anonymous said...

The TWU must have changed their rules since I worked for them because it was previously a vote by the National Council.

Even with the CFMEU the Divisional Secretaries are also elected by their Divisional Executives.