Asia Times: Union threatens action against Indonesian planes



	April 28, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

Union threatens action against Indonesian planes

CANBERRA - Indonesian aircraft flying in and out of Australia are under threat of industrial action over the government's handling of recent massacres in East Timor.

The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) has passed a resolution criticizing the government, saying it has failed to condemn the deaths.

A meeting of AMWU airline delegates in Sydney passed the resolution Tuesday, recommending its 1,200 airline members hold urgent mass meetings and consider industrial action. AMWU acting national president Julius Roe called on other unions to support the campaign.

''It is unacceptable that Australia supports massive intervention in the Kosovo conflict yet in our own backyard we are pussyfooting around,'' he said.

Roe said workers at the Qantas jet base, which services international planes including those from Indonesia, would hold a stopwork meeting when the next Indonesian plane came in and consider refusing to work on it. ''There is the clear possibility that that would disrupt services,'' he said.

Roe said the Australian Confederation of Trade Unions would also consider at a meeting in Melbourne on Friday whether wider action should be taken. ''The delegates at the jet base, who are the leaders of the rank and file, are very concerned about the situation in East Timor as it is quite clear that the Indonesian military is behind what's happening there,'' he said. ''They also believe Australia should take a stronger stance against it."

Comment was not immediately available from Indonesia's Garuda Airlines or Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer.

The Indonesian military estimates that recent violence betweeen pro and anti-independence factions in East Timor has led to 26 deaths, while other sources put the toll as high as 100.

(Asia Pulse)