Unions at loggerheads on vote

By Greg Roberts and Megan SaundersAugust 04, 2004
A CALL by the Australian Workers Union for the US free trade agreement to be supported has isolated left-wing unions opposed to the deal.AWU national president Bill Ludwig said yesterday that despite some misgivings, he believed the agreement was in the national interest.
"The question you have to ask yourself is whether it's better to have the door ajar than have it closed," Mr Ludwig said.
"Overall, you have to say yes. With a population of 300 million over there, that's not a bad market to get into."
But Australian Manufacturing Workers Union national secretary Doug Cameron attacked the "nervous Nellies" in the ALP leadership group and warned that Labor would lose votes to the minor parties at the election as a result of yesterday's decision to back the FTA.


Mr Cameron said the AMWU's national council would reconsider donations to the ALP and raised the prospect of the union only supporting politicians who were opposed to the deal.
"I think there are some nervous Nellies in the Labor Party who are not prepared to differentiate the party at any cost," he said. "There are some leadership people who have led this party to two election defeats, and these political geniuses still think they have sway. We will continue to campaign against the free trade agreement right up until the election."
Mr Ludwig said because sugar was excluded from the agreement, his union, which covers workers in sugar mills, had been at least as badly affected as the AMWU and other unions against the pact.
"We were more than disappointed sugar was left out," Mr Ludwig said.
"But in any of these issues there is a downside and an upside. If it's in the best interests of the rest of the economy, then we just have to cop that."