Maritime Union of New Zealand back struggle of Australian Unions against anti-Union, anti-worker laws

The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand has offered its full sup­port to Aus­tralian Unions in their strug­gle against anti-Union laws.

The CFMEU Con­struc­tion Divi­sion was recent­ly placed in admin­is­tra­tion fol­low­ing unproven alle­ga­tions of crim­i­nal activ­i­ty and new leg­is­la­tion rushed through the Aus­tralian Par­lia­ment.

The Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia is a divi­sion of the CFMEU, and is back­ing a High Court chal­lenge against the Fed­er­al Government’s “unjus­ti­fied, chaot­ic and reck­less deci­sion” to place the CFMEU’s Con­struc­tion Divi­sion into admin­is­tra­tion.

Mr Find­lay says MUNZ agrees with the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia that the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment in Aus­tralia has effec­tive­ly robbed con­struc­tion work­ers of an effec­tive union.

“Mar­itime work­ers on both sides of the Tas­man sup­port key demo­c­ra­t­ic prin­ci­ples includ­ing the pre­sump­tion of inno­cence, nat­ur­al jus­tice and due process under law.”

“The Mar­itime Union of New Zealand is fed­er­at­ed with the Mar­itime Union of Aus­tralia, and the MUA and the wider CFMEU have our full sup­port in their strug­gle.”

Mr Find­lay says all work­ers should be aware of the dan­gers of extreme anti-Union agen­das that under­mine the hard won rights of work­ers to orga­nize. 

“This is a dis­turb­ing prece­dent and must be chal­lenged.”

The Mar­itime Union in Aus­tralia and New Zealand have their ori­gins in the Fed­er­at­ed Seaman’s Union of Aus­trala­sia found­ed in the 1870s.

“Gov­ern­ments come and Gov­ern­ments go, but the Union and the orga­nized work­ing class are here to stay.”