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'I would urge UWU staff not to attend'
'Bullying and intimidation' at the United Workers Union
Alex McKinnon
March 19, 2025
A leaked email has revealed United Workers Union Western Australian branch secretary Carolyn Smith urged union staff not to attend a rally supporting a ceasefire in Gaza as it was outside a Labor MP’s office.
In the email, which Smith sent from her UWU account to all branch staff on November 29, 2023, Smith forbade UWU staff from attending the planned protest outside the office of Labor MP for Perth Patrick Gorman while sporting union-branded clothing or merchandise.
“While I understand many of us have strong views on this issue (and I have seen many of you at the rallies supporting Palestine and calling for a ceasefire) I would urge UWU staff not to attend this rally,” Smith wrote. “Patrick is a long term UWU member and strong supporter of our members [sic] issues in the federal caucus.
“However if staff do attend I want to make it clear that you should not wear UWU t-shirts or take flags. Whilst I have said this is appropriate for the community rallies etc it would not be appropriate given Patricks [sic] strong support for UWU members.”
I sent questions to the UWU’s WA branch and Gorman’s office on March 3 but have received no reply.
The email’s leak is not the first time the issue of Palestine has caused division in the union’s WA office. Speaking anonymously, multiple current and former UWU employees claim the branch’s senior leadership waged a months-long campaign of bullying, harassment and intimidation against branch staff members who signed a petition in support of former Labor senator and UWU member Fatima Payman.
The allegations are now the subject of a WorkSafe WA investigation, while the The West Australian reported in September that former employees are considering filing a class action against the branch.
The petition in question was started by UWU staff in the union’s Victorian branch in June after Payman was suspended from the federal Labor Party caucus for voting in support of a Greens Senate motion calling for Australia to recognise a Palestinian state.
It quickly gathered support from UWU employees and branches across the country. “Many people in the union, me included, want to give support to Fatima,” UWU national secretary Tim Kennedy told The Australian at the time. “What she’s done is a difficult thing. She’s done it with a genuine and humanitarian focus.”
On Friday, June 28, several UWU staff in the Western Australian office printed out a copy of the petition and began asking people in the branch to sign it.
Before she crossed the floor, Payman was held up by the UWU’s WA branch as an example of what the union could achieve. A former organiser in the branch, her election to the Senate at the age of 27 was an achievement the branch was eager to claim as having had a hand in.
"The branch did a lot of talking [her] up,” Chloe says. “There was a lot of, 'She's a hijabi woman, we're the only union that does this, no other union preselects women of diverse backgrounds, we're so progressive’.”
"She was upheld as one of their golden children,” Claire* says. “Even if you run in one of those positions and you don't win, you do kind of get rewarded down the track.”
However, this changed once Payman spoke out. UWU staff allege members of the branch’s senior leadership responded furiously to the petition, and to the staff members circulating it.
"It was awful. The stuff that happened was so, so bad,” Chloe* says. “[A senior official] demanded: 'What's going on? Does Carolyn [Smith] know about this? This is not okay.’ People ended up in offices crying. People were shaking. There was a story of two women of colour hiding in an office so their lead wouldn't find them.”
"They're terrified. They're terrified they're going to lose their jobs. Everyone is scared."
Citing serious risks to employees’ health and safety, the office’s Health and Safety Representative (HSR) filed two Provisional Improvement Notices (PINs) against the branch.
In a lengthy statement published on the union’s website, titled ‘STATEMENT ON UNFOUNDED ALLEGATIONS AGAINST UWU’, UWU national president Jo Schofield said:
“In relation to recent reports based on unnamed sources, following lengthy internal inquiries we have found nothing to substantiate any underlying allegations and we therefore reject those allegations out of hand.
“…The sources of these rumours are unnamed and no person has complained or provided any specific allegations to the Union for it to investigate.
“…These PINs were cancelled because they were unable to be specific about the allegations of inappropriate behaviour – therefore the cancellation cannot be seen in any way as a technicality.
“The issuing of the PINs was not supported by a majority of staff in WA, nor is there support for the circulation of unfounded allegations against people in the United Workers Union. Workers in the WA office subsequently voted overwhelmingly to remove the Health and Safety Representative who issued the PINs from her role.”
While the union has brushed off the claims of workplace bullying, Payman has addressed them publicly, both on social media and in a speech to the Senate in November.
UWU workers also take exception to the union’s statement.
"Systemic racism has been raised with the union so many times. People are very unwell because of the treatment they've received. And the response is always been 'no, it's just a handful of troublemakers in the union making this up. There is no bullying. This thing on the Friday didn't happen',” Chloe says.
“Their response in the media is disgusting. Their response to their workers is appalling."
Claire puts the union’s hostility to the petition, and to expressions of support for Palestine among its staff, down to its status in the state Labor Party.
"In WA, the union represents public sector workers, so the union's power in the Labor Party is much higher than in most other states, and all the power in WA is in the Labor Party. Carolyn Smith is probably the most influential person in WA. These people have power. Structural power,” she says. “If members are seen to not be toeing the line, the union loses a little bit of that power.”
“As someone who has faced the same standover tactics from both the union and the Labor Party, I can confirm these are not isolated incidents,” Payman said in response to questions. “This is exactly what happens when those in power forget who they’re supposed to stand for. It is a disgrace that the very people who fight for workers’ rights are now being bullied and intimidated for speaking up.
“Where are our politicians standing up for these workers? The Premier is an UWU member. WA’s industrial relations minister is an UWU member. Eight cabinet ministers are UWU members. UWU is the most well represented union in the WA Labor caucus. Yet I have heard nothing from any of them. It is appalling.”
"They have so much power, and they bullied people for signing a petition. My God,” Chloe says. “And everyone knows that's just the way it is."
Yesterday I launched something I’ve been working on for a while. Since about December I’ve been getting a lot of messages from people in Gaza who are trying to raise money. A massive number of people need help and trying to figure out where your money can “best” go is overwhelming, so I made a spreadsheet of people messaging me and started a fundraiser that will split all proceeds between them equally.
The upside is that it has the potential to help a whole heap of people who’ve been contacted and vetted. The downside is that, because there’s so many, I need to raise a lot of money for it to be effective.
Israel’s bombing Gaza again, the ceasefire is effectively over, and people are more in danger than ever. If you’ve got some spare cash, this is a really good home for it.
If you’ve got anything to spare, please consider giving some money to this fundraiser I’m running for Noor Hammad, a young mum in Gaza, and her baby daughter Hoor. Any money raised will be sent to Noor's brother Abdallah Abdalrahim, who lives in Sweden and can send her money directly.
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