Dave Kerin at the establishment of the Outer Eastern Suburbs Community and Unions CoalitionThursday 15 June 2006
All over Melbourne, community groups are being established to fight the Howard Government's Work Choices legislation which is changing the face of industrial relations and workplace equity in Australia. Last Thursday night, the Outer Eastern Suburbs Community and Unions Coalition was established at a meeting at the Knox Community Centre. Now organising such a group in the Outer East can be a bit difficult - simply because a lot of people do the one hour commute to the city. There are industrial areas, particularly in the Bayswater and Mitcham areas, but in these days when there is 24 hour shift work and unpaid overtime it can be difficult to pick a good time for meetings and difficult to attract people to a meeting when it can mean breaking into precious family time. But sufficient people turned up last Thursday night to establish a well-organised group.
Miss Eagle walked into the meeting and didn't know anybody - except the man in the back row: the grand old man of left-wing community organisation in Melbourne, Dave Kerin. (Sorry Dave - don't mean to be ageist or imply extreme antiquity.) Dave is the co-founder and co-ordinator of Earthworker and Union Solidarity and an ex-BLF official active in the anti-deregistration battle in the 1980s. Dave is also a significant player in the RMIT Community Advocacy Unit.
If you would like to get involved in the Outer East campaign against Work Choices, get in touch with Miss Eagle by emailing off the side-bar or you can phone:
Dave Leydon on 0408 998 849
or
Josh Cullinan on 0416 241 763.
The next meeting of the Outer Eastern Suburbs Community & Unions Coalition
will be at
The Knox Community Centre
cnr Scoresby Road and Mount Highway, Bayswater
at 6pm
on
Wednesday 12 July.
