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18 June, 2007
Jeff Lawrence, the 17-year president of ICEM affiliate Liquor, Hospitality, and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU), won selection last week as Secretary-elect of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).
He will succeed Greg Combet, who will stand down late this year as the day-to-day leader of the Australia’s national labour centre and run for Parliament from the New South Wales district of Charlton in 2007 elections. Combet has served as secretary of the 1.9-million-member ACTU since the year 2000.
Jeff Lawrence, new ACTU Secretary-elect
Lawrence, 55, was the only person nominated for the post at the ACTU’s Organising Conference on 13 June at the University of New South Wales. He began his trade union career in 1977 for the Federated Miscellaneous Workers Union, one of several predecessor unions to the 130,000-member LHMU.
“I am determined to work hard to see off the Howard government and its unfair IR laws,” Lawrence stated. “As ACTU Secretary, I want to work with Australian working families to ensure that they and their rights are given respect. (That includes) respect for them to be heard … in the workplace and in society in general; respect for their role as parents and carers; (and) respect for their skills and their ability to improve themselves.
“That’s what WorkChoices, the Howard government’s industrial law, has taken away.”
ACTU President Sharan Burrow called Lawrence a trade unionist who has led the charge against the Howard government’s draconian labour relations reforms. “He is from a union that has members at the forefront of the impact of WorkChoices," she said. “I look forward to working with Jeff Lawrence and to developing a new partnership to lead the community campaign to restore the rights of working Australians taken away by the Australian government.”