Vale, Andrew Casey

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The union movement is mourning the sudden death in Sydney yesterday of veteran communicator and activist, Andrew Casey.

Casey liked to joke about his "Irish" background, with his surname once prompting a warm welcome during a journalistic visit to the Irish Parliament, the Dail.

In truth, he arrived in Australia as a refugee from Hungary as a small child in the 1950s – and would later say that he had people smugglers to thank for his life in a new country.

Casey joined his first union when he worked as a boilermaker's assistant at the then Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney Harbour during the Vietnam War, a time when union activists were under close official scrutiny for their links to the peace movement.

He later worked as an industrial reporter, political editor and foreign correspondent for Fairfax Media, and was a committed member of the former Australian Journalists' Association and its successor, the MEAA.

He then worked for almost a decade as a media officer at the ACTU under the leadership of secretary Bill Kelty during the Accord era, as well as filling various communication roles at the CFMEU, the LHMU (now United Voice), the AWU and the ANMF.

Casey was one of the original correspondents and editors of the global union news portal LabourStart, and closely followed union activity around the world.

The ACTU said today that Casey's work "laid the foundations for the online component of the strong campaigning culture that exists within the Australian union movement".

Apart from being a founding editor of LabourStart, Casey ran the first Australian email campaign for a better deal for workers at Sydney's Hilton Hotel during his time at the LHMU.

"An immense loss": McManus

ACTU secretary Sally McManus described Casey's death as "an immense loss to the Australian union movement".

"Andrew's contribution to the lives of working people in this country, his tireless energy and his guidance for young unionists and reporters will be sorely missed," she said.

"Andrew was the kind of unionist we all aspire to be – he lived union values every day, giving his experience, his wisdom and his time to improve the lives of working Australians.

"He was principled, compassionate and generous.

"He was an elder statesman, a moral barometer and an active and vigorous campaigner for the length of his life."

Opposition leader Bill Shorten, who worked alongside Casey at the AWU in 2007, tweeted that "he was one of the best...brilliant, passionate and a relentless champion for the rights of working people".

MEAA media section president Marcus Strom said Casey already had a fine record as a newspaper journalist before becoming a pioneer of modern union communications.

"He was passionate about preserving good industrial relations reporting, and was the driving force behind the establishment of the Walkley Award for workplace journalism," said Strom.

"He will be sorely missed."

On his OzLabourStart Twitter account, Casey described himself as "Solidarity, decency, equality. Values informed by Yid background. Salaam/Shalom. I support Israel AND Palestine".

An enthusiastic social media campaigner, Casey tweeted more than 40,000 times in less than 10 years after embracing the platform as a communications tool in 2008.

However, perhaps Casey's biggest strengths as a communicator came from listening intently, plus his personal and institutional knowledge of workplace relations.

He was a passionate campaigner for broader social justice causes, particularly in the areas of asylum seeking and human rights.

He is survived by his brother, son and daughter.

Browse more articles on: People Obituaries

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