United Firefighters Union chief Peter Marshall is facing expulsion from the Socialist Left faction
Union firebrand Peter Marshall has been threatened with expulsion from the Premier’s Socialist Left faction in a shock internal hit from within the Labor Party.
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Union firebrand Peter Marshall has been threatened with expulsion from the Premier’s Socialist Left faction in a shock internal hit from within the Labor Party.
The head of the United Firefighters Union is facing expulsion from the group after other left-aligned unions banded together against him.
They have hit out at Mr Marshall’s campaign against extending presumptive cancer legislation to mechanics and equipment maintenance workers attending fires, which has included a threat to campaign against the Labor Party in some marginal seats.
Tony Mavromatis from the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union tabled the motion to the Socialist Left and it was seconded by Troy Gray from the Electrical Trades Union.
They, along with Mr Marshall, are part of the left-wing group which Daniel Andrews leads and the faction controls a significant portion of the party.
“SL Unions has long worked as a collective when considering industrial issues that effect the members of those Unions in our group,” the motion.
“What SL Unions has never stood for however is one of our unions campaigning to the detriment of another group of workers.”
The motion says expansion of cancer legislation had come with campaigning from the AMWU and the Australian Services Union.
“The actions of the United Firefighters Union Secretary, Peter Marshall to not just publicly campaign against this outcome but to do so without any consultation with the ASU or AMWU were abhorrent,” it said.
“The secretary of a Trade Union, actively campaigning against the right for a group of blue-collar workers to be protected if they contract cancer is not something that I thought that I would witness in my time as a Union Official.
“The actions of Peter Marshall were not only to the absolute detriment of the 90 workers covered by the AMWU and ASU, his constant threats to campaign against the Labor government in it’s 15 most marginal seats has the potential to put everything this group has fought for and won over the last 8 years of the Victorian State government in jeopardy.
“This is something thar SL Unions cannot stand for.”
In response, two other unions representing meat workers and communications workers have also threatened to walk away.
One Labor source said these unions represented a small fraction of the party, and that the other SL unions had taken a calculated risk when starting the internal brawl.
Peter marshall did not respond to request for comment.
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