In the wake of the hasty passage of legislation six months ago to enable the CFMMEU's mining division to go its own way, the Attorney-General's Department says that eligible constituent parts of unions and other registered organisations can apply to demerge if they have amalgamated since early 1991.
The merger between the Transport Workers Union and the Virgin Independent Pilots Association in July will lead to the creation of a pilots' division within the TWU, subject to VIPA members approving the nuptials in a ballot.
The CFMMEU's mining and energy division has asked the FWC to expedite the hearing of its demerger application because of the union's civil war, in correspondence revealing its substantial assets and its proposed new name, while the Commission has today timetabled a case dealing with threshold matters.
The MUA has created a new non-voting "supporter" membership category that will seek to enrol community members and capitalise on the the substantial support it has built through its long history of campaigning on a wide range of political and social change movements.
The CFMMEU mining and energy division's historic application to demerge from the amalgamated union will have its first mention tomorrow before FWC President Iain Ross.
A new legal front has opened up in the CFMMEU's civil war, with the mining and energy division objecting to proposed changes to rules covering the union's national leadership structures and administration.
The much-reduced IR omnibus Bill passed Parliament today, after the House of Representatives accepted the Senate's amendments, while the Government has also made regulations for its union demerger legislation.
The FWC has decided to stay elements of an AFAP rule change decision that enables it to compete with AIPA to represent all Qantas mainline pilots, unless it gives an undertaking today that it won't encourage them to join until the determination of an appeal.
The Federal Court has this afternoon rejected the CFMMEU's bid to stay an injunction that effectively stopped it passing a resolution aimed at frustrating its mining and energy division's demerger plans.
The national convention of the CFMMEU's mining and energy division has endorsed demerging from the broader organisation, warning against any attempt to stop it forming an "independent union".
