May 21, 2008

National's court case won't stop EPMU campaign

While the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union will continue to campaign for the rights of its members this year, it is disappointed with the outcome of the High Court case taken against it by the National Party.

The ruling means the EPMU is considered a legal person under the Electoral Finance Act but the affect of this decision on the union's third party registration will be determined by the Electoral Commission.

EPMU national secretary Andrew Little says the High Court's ruling and any subsequent decision from the Commission will not greatly alter the union's plans for its 2008 WorkRights campaign.

"Despite the National Party's best attempts to stop us we will be campaigning on the issue of work rights and higher wages this year because that's what our membership have told us they want.

"The registration will now go back to the Commission for a decision and if the EPMU is registered we will probably do some election advertising but it is not our main priority.

"Our plans for this year were always to focus on the issue of work rights and higher wages and we will be announcing the details of our 2008 WorkRights campaign within the next few weeks."

The EPMU is a democratic organisation with 50,000 members spanning 11 industries.

In 2006 the EPMU led the campaign to reject National's 90 Day No-Rights Bill which was designed to take all work rights from workers in the first 90 days of a new job - this is still National Party policy.

ENDS

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