HSU's Jackson Charges Williamson HSU National Secretary Kathy

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HSU's Jackson charges Williamson HSU national secretary Kathy Jackson has charged Michael Williamson for breaching union rules. MAVERICK Health Services Union national secretary Kathy Jackson has employed a union‐busting lawyer to bring union charges against suspended union boss Michael Williamson. Ms Jackson said yesterday she had delivered 1900 pages of union documents to industrial lawyer Stuart Wood SC, a vice‐president of the conservative HR Nicholls Society who acted against the Maritime Union of Australia during the 1998 war on the wharves. Asked why she had gone to Mr Wood, Ms Jackson told The Weekend Australian, "I rang Mr Wood because I tried getting representation from the labour law firms and they were all conflicted; they all work for the HSU." Mr Wood took the case pro bono. Ms Jackson yesterday notified officials of the HSU East branch that she would charge Mr Williamson under union rules with gross misbehaviour, or gross neglect of duty for refusing to co‐operate with the Temby inquiry into the union's affairs. She said recent claims Mr Williamson spent $30,000 a month on a secret black Centurion American Express card held in the name of his "close friend" Cheryl McMillan suggested prima‐facie graft. Ms Jackson has demanded acting general secretary Peter Mylan produce the union's financial records showing all payments to Canme Services, which Ms Jackson said had got $400,000 over a period of years for "clerical services" without Mr Williamson disclosing the company was owned by his wife. Ms Jackson said it was "breathtaking" that the 1100‐page Fair Work Australia report into the union's activities during the period Labor MP Craig Thomson was HSU national secretary had not been released. Mr Williamson, a former ALP national president who was this week forced to resign as vice‐president of Unions NSW, Ms McMillan and Mr Thomson all deny any wrongdoing. Ms Jackson agreed it was "obscene" that Mr Williamson was paid $350,000 a year by the union and that she was paid $270,000. She said Mr Williamson had set the pay scale after the union's amalgamation in 2010 despite opposition and she would "definitely" take a pay cut. "The current farce has to end," she told a press conference at Mr Wood's Melbourne office. Ms Jackson said she would approach the NSW O'Farrell government about fresh union elections, the possible appointment of an administrator and new measures to "democratise" unions registered in NSW, including a cap on election spending and declaration of funding sources to curb "big money union elections" . Mr O'Farrell vowed to examine all options to give union members "the relief they are seeking". Ms Jackson said if Mr Williamson were forced out, his replacement must not be installed in a "secret backroom deal, as has been occurring in this union for too long". Mr Wood said he had taken Ms Jackson's case because there were "many forces" opposed to her and after examining the documents she provided it appeared "something was seriously wrong with the state of the HSU in NSW". Tony Abbott last night described the HSU as a corrupt boys club and a stinking patronage machine. "The faceless men who run the Labor Party are the people who these kinds of racketeering unions support," he said. .

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