Give us back our dues, union members tell Labor

Victorian unions representing 85,000 workers will on Tuesday formally ask the ALP to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in affiliation fees.

ALP national secretary Paul Erickson.

Victorian unions representing 85,000 workers will on Tuesday formally ask the ALP to return hundreds of thousands of dollars in affiliation fees, threatening Anthony Albanese’s campaign war chest ahead of the next election.

The Australian has seen a draft letter to be sent to ALP national secretary Paul Erickson that will escalate the battle among the ALP’s head office, the Opposition Leader and a group of Victorian unions that includes the CFMEU and Australian Workers Union.

After using the courts to derail Mr Albanese’s plans to fast-track preselections in Victoria, union leaders are furious with a legal ­argument from the ALP that affiliation fees are akin to donations.

The union secretaries, who argue Victorian members should be allowed to vote in preselections, are contesting the ALP’s argument that union affiliation “has no bearing, buys no votes”.

“It gives a sense of entitlement but gives rise to no claim,” said the ALP’s legal counsel, Peter Willis SC, in legal hearings on Thursday.

The draft letter, written by CFMEU Victorian vice-president Michael Myles on behalf of seven unions, asks the ALP to return ­affiliation fees from June last year, when the Victorian branch was put into administration following the Adem Somyurek branch-stacking scandal.

“This statement makes clear that union affiliations fees are not made in relation to voting rights and thus bear no impact on our role or voting rights within the party,” the draft letter says.

Other unions asking for their affiliation fees to be returned are the Rail Tram and Bus Union, United Firefighters Union, Health Workers Union, Health and Community Services Union and the plumbers’ union.

Anthony Albanese at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Sources say the letter is a stark warning to the ALP about the fin­ancial implications of stopping rank-and-file votes in Victorian preselections, even if the unions fail in the case to be heard in the Supreme Court of Victoria later this month.

After a “stability deal” was struck between factions on their picks for 22 safe federal seats in Victoria, Mr Albanese last week asked for a national takeover of preselections to be finalised by last Friday.

His plan struck a major hurdle when judge Timothy Ginnane extended an injunction preventing preselections from being declared at least until the conclusion of a trial set to begin on May 27.

Unions pay a quarterly fee of $1.43 per member to be affiliated with Labor. This would bring the fees for the seven unions close to $500,000 a year.

On top of affiliation fees, ­unions contribute major donations ahead of state and federal elections, with the CFMEU contributing more than $1m to Bill Shorten’s campaign in 2019.

The CFMEU’s Victorian branch alone paid nearly $44,000 in the last quarter of 2020 for affiliation fees for its 30,472 members.

CFMEU national political organiser Elizabeth Doidge — a close ally of Mr Albanese’s union nemesis John Setka — accused the Labor leader of not believing in party democracy.

“Anthony Albanese’s lawyers categorically stated in the ­Supreme Court last week that union-affiliated fees ‘give no seat at the table’. It shows how ­little regard Albo has for the union members who financially support the party,” she said.

“Albanese’s lawyers stated that affiliation fees ‘give a sense of entitlement, but give rise to no claim’ to democracy within the party. This shows the entitlement of leader who takes unions and their members for granted.”

Labor has forecast it will earn a total income of $35m in the 2021-22 financial year — nearly $15m less than it did in 2018-19.