New and improved?

Alliance Queensland President Carol Burns writes:

I was part of the last amalgamation that Equity went through when we combined with the AJA. We members of Equity were all very nervous about the possible loss of identity. We thought the increased resources promised by sharing day-to-day running costs might not be channelled to “our” needs.
Would those pesky journalists get all the service because they were a bigger and stronger section?
Would amalgamation give us more personnel in the office to assist our enquiries about industrial or professional problems?
Our new union then is now our old union, the MEAA, that has served us well. And I still feel like a member of Equity.
I won’t list how many agreements our industrial officers have negotiated and how many battles have been fought but the membership has been guided through the vicissitudes of life by a great team of paid staff. I know we would be in a sorry state without the union and that the office could always do with more staff.
Now we are talking about another amalgamation with another bigger union to form a new entity. I’m sure you’ve seen the information that’s come out through e-bulletins and from Terry O’Connor, our Branch Secretary.
We need to consider all those questions from 1991 again and bring all our worries, founded or unfounded, to the surface so we can make this next amalgamation successfully. If it goes ahead, the aim is to survive with strength into a demanding future with resources to support the needs of the membership.
Presently the strongest contender to join with to form the new union is the CPSU but there are others that could have been, should have been and have been talked with.
Head office have had a team of four talking with prospective partners and Terry and I are part of a Future Strategies committee they report to and discuss with. We need to understand from you whether discussions are going in the correct way.
Read the previous entry in this blog, and the responses to it. Post your responses here or give your questions or opinions to the Alliance Queensland office for Branch Council to talk about on 2nd December and then to take to Federal Council on the 8th and 9th December.
Then talk about it some more when you’re out and about into the New Year.
Get involved.
We’ll make our best decision as a union if we know what we want. Of course you can leave it up to someone else - but how lame is that!
- Carol Burns Equity membership number 4027106.
- Currently serving as Queensland Branch Council President