Australia’s newest union has used May Day to take its skills and training petition trackside at two of regional NSW’s biggest autumn festivals, with Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union (TFTU) delegates and organisers working stalls at the Falling Leaf Festival in Tumut and the Experience Orange Festival.
Union members talked all things timber with festival-goers and gathered signatures on a petition calling for greater investment in regional skills and training, with branded lolly bags in the union’s red and navy colours handed out to children and parents alike. The stalls follow the recent NSW Timber Roundtable, with TFTU delegates briefing community members on the Roundtable’s outcomes.
TFTU NSW Secretary Alison Rudman told Wood Central the festivals put the union in front of timber communities often crowded out by anti-forestry activism, with towns like Tumut and Tumbarumba home to hundreds of timber workers “proud to make the products local families rely on.” Rudman said delegates and organisers also ran community education at both stalls, with families given a relaxed setting away from the workday to raise questions about job security, pay and safety.
Rudman said local reps would work more festivals over the coming months, with stalls planned in towns from Lismore and Grafton on the NSW North Coast through to Nowra and Eden on the South Coast. The TFTU’s regional skills and training petition will sit at the centre of the cycle, building on the recent NSW Timber Roundtable as the union’s main organising tool through the festival circuit.
With the Falling Leaf and Experience Orange Festivals behind it and Lismore, Grafton, Nowra and Eden ahead, the TFTU’s regional skills and training petition will track six forestry-dependent timber towns across four NSW regions over the coming months.
