United Voice News
LHMU's Dave Kelly returned in landslide election victory
Dave Kelly has been overwhelmingly re-elected as the secretary of the Western Australian branch of the LHMU, the AEC declared today.
Mr Kelly won 91% of the vote for the position of secretary. Dave’s team of assistant secretaries Carolyn Smith and Kelly Shay have also been re-elected along with branch president Nina Devlin and a 13-strong executive team.
Mr Kelly has been secretary since 2002, working with members and delegates in health, education, childcare, hospitality, aged care, the ambulance service, security and manufacturing.
Under his leadership, membership of WA’s largest union has increased by around 24%. Other successes have included:
- Increased LHMU membership from 16,000 to 21,000
- Returning privatised jobs in school cleaning to secure in-house government jobs;
- Converting more than 3000 temporary government education assistants to permanent;
- Defeating AWAs at the Burswood casino and winning a casino-wide union agreement for the first time;
- Winning above award wages in union agreements in over 70% of aged care facilities without trading off conditions;
- Winning union agreements in major disability service providers like Activ, Nulsen Haven, I.D.Entity, Cerebral Palsy Association and the Autism Association;
- Bringing back in-house more than 1000 government hospital jobs that had been privatised in the 1990s.
Mr Kelly said he was grateful for the confidence members had shown in him and his team, and they were all looking forward to working for better pay and more secure jobs with members.
“Many of our fantastic members who have led our campaigns for change have now been elected to our branch executive. They all deserve to be congratulated,” said Mr Kelly.
“Myself, Nina, Kelly and Carolyn are incredibly excited to be working with these leaders to win better jobs and stronger futures in our industries over the next four years.
“The work we do provides essential services to our community but often we don’t get the respect we deserve.
“Our work is about raising our voices and shining a spotlight on who we are and what we do.
“We face many challenges with the Liberal state government and the threat of privatisation is very much back on the agenda in hospitals and schools in WA.
“So we will not be resting on our laurels. There is always more to do.”
CONGRATULATIONS on being returned to office.
Keep up the good work and we can get on with working as a team to serve our members.
To all that were elected Well Done
Brett Clements