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Wednesday 15 November 2017
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‘Unemployed workers’ find united voice
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RIDER Bec Savage and horse Charlie will soon celebrate Mentone Pony Club’s 60th anniversary. See Page 4. Picture: Gary Sissons
Neil Walker neil@baysidenews.com.au A UNION for the unemployed may seem like a contradiction in terms but that’s exactly what an organisation setting up shop in Frankston is all about. Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union volunteers will host fortnightly meetings at Frankston Arts Centre to help people on the dole negotiate the welfare system and know their rights when dealing with Centrelink and job agencies. “Our mission at the Australian Unemployed Workers’ Union is to fight for the basic human rights of unemployed Australians, most of whom are living in poverty,” the group’s mission statement says. “We are fighting back against Australia’s unfair welfare system. It was recently revealed that the basic Newstart payment is only half of what Australians need to live out of poverty.” Frankston co-organiser Paul Callanan said the Frankston branch of the AUWU is open to people “from Portsea to Mentone and Crib Point to Cranbourne” and it is free to join. “It makes sense to have a Frankston branch taking in all those areas,” he said. The organisation “run for the unemployed by the unemployed” is not a registered union and is an incorporated association, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria records. The group’s website declares “offi-
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cial endorsements from National Union of Workers (NUW) and the Electrical Trades Union (ETU)”. Federal Liberal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash slammed the AUWU in June, saying the group’s “sole purpose appears to be keeping members out of gainful employment and encouraging them to shirk their responsibilities.” Mr Callanan — a former taxi driver, multi-storey plumber and employee of the Cain government era Victorian Economic Development Corporation — said he is helping the AUWU with spreading the word about the nascent Frankston branch online. The AUWU is calling on all Centrelink payments to be increased to $517 a week; work for the dole programs to be abolished and the axing of privately owned job agencies in favour or reinstating the Commonwealth Employment Service to get the unemployed back to work. AUWU Frankston branch convener Fae Roth, a Hastings resident and former factory company director, said she got involved in helping the organisation after hearing about its work on community radio station 3CR. “I don’t think the general public realises how tough some people are doing it,” she said. “Unemployment, redundancies and job losses are affecting people directly more than anything else I can think of in horrific ways.” Continued Page 4