CFMEU Forestry and Furnishing Products Division NSW North Coast Organiser Bluey Menon said today that the union’s membership was angry a federal Labor government would restrict access to the aged pension to age 67, for blue-collar workers in physically punishing areas of work.
“All the feedback I am getting in my area is that the members are not happy. They expected better from an ALP Government and they are worried that, given the arduous nature of their work, they may not be physically able to keep working until 67.”
CFMEU National Secretary John Sutton this week wrote to Prime Minister Rudd, making clear that CFMEU members across the forestry, construction and mining sectors were unhappy with the recent budget decision to lift the pension age and seeking a review of the decision.
The letter stated “It is neither fair nor realistic to tell 65 year olds who have worked a lifetime in our heavy industries that they are compelled to work for another two years on a jack hammer, in a sawmill, a coal mine…before they can gain access to the Aged Pension.”
Mr Menon said that at mass meetings he had had across the region since the federal budget was handed down, the raising of the retirement age had been a sore point.
“This issue is a ‘sleeper’ and has the potential to really hurt the Government as the implications of this budget announcement sink in. One thing is certain, the members I represent are not happy and the anger is growing, not diminishing.”
“Our union is of the view that hard working people deserve better than this sort of decision and that politicians in Canberra are not well placed to judge the age at which timber and forest products workers can ‘pull up stumps.’"
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