The CFMEU has welcomed this week’s passing in the Senate of the Anti-Dumping Improvement bill, but the union warned that more needs to be done.

The new Anti-Dumping Commission starts next week and the Commissioner will have more tools to protect jobs from dumping due to the changes introduced by the bill.

The union is running its Let’s Spread it Around campaign to influence Australian government policies to support manufacturing. This campaign will now include calls for election commitmentsto implement more reforms to the anti-dumping system. These further reforms are needed in order to capitalise on the significant improvements that have been made to the system in the last few years.

“The gains that have already been made are a major win for workers.” CFMEU National Secretary Michael O’Connor said.

“It was only in 2010 that the Government was actively considering a proposal by the Productivity Commission to further weaken Australia’s broken anti-dumping system.

“This suggestion was absurd, particularly considering nothing was being done to stop the proven dumping of cheap toilet paper from Indonesia and China, the end result of which was the closure of two tissue machines, a pulp mill and over 200 direct job losses in the South-East of South Australia.

“In response, the CFMEU mobilised our 110,000 members around the country, united with other unions whose workers were at threat from dumping and worked with manufacturing employers through an anti-dumping roundtable the unions hosted. This resulted in a shift from one of the weakest anti-dumping systems in the world, to workers now having a level of protection which seemed impossible at the time.

“The fact that all of the anti-dumping improvement bills have had bi-partisan support has been a positive, however sensible amendments which would have helped the Anti-Dumping Commission protect Australian jobs were defeated in the Senate, which is a concern. Policies which would prevent unscrupulous importers from masking the country of origin of their goods and a stronger approach to countries that do not play by the rules are needed from parties aspiring to Government.

“The union will continue the fight for a better anti-dumping system as long as dumped imports continue to cost Australian jobs and hurt families and their communities,” Mr O’Connor concluded.

Fri 28/06/2013,

Source: cfmeu.net.au