23 February 2025
MEDIA RELEASE
Hundreds of Timber Workers to
Vote to LEAVE THE CFMEU
Hundreds of Timber Workers in the Snowy Valleys are expected to vote in a demerger ballot which will see them establish their own Union, the Timber, Furnishing and Textiles Union (TFTU).
The secret ballot run by the Australian Electoral Commission opens on the 24th of February and will run to the 14th of April.
Currently timber workers (including those making pulp and paper products) are members of the CFMEU Manufacturing Division – with that Division’s members now voting across the country to leave the CFMEU and get their own union.
“Our members have been clear, they want out of the CFMEU and are pleased to be voting ‘YES’ to becoming the TFTU” said Ms Alison Rudman, Secretary of the NSW District of the CFMEU’s Manufacturing Division.
“Members in places like Tumut and Tumbarumba are tired of being associated with the CFMEU Construction Division that is always in the news for the wrong reasons. They are looking forward to the TFTU having a laser focus on the issues that impact all our members like wood supply, recognition of their skills and protecting timber jobs in timber towns” said Ms Rudman.
“The right of timber workers to have a demerger vote was originally championed by Senator Jacqui Lambie and then taken up by the Albanese Government. The legislation that gave members this right to vote was supported by all MPs except the Greens” Ms Rudman said.
The CFMEU Manufacturing Division would be the second Division to leave the CFMEU after the Mining and Energy Division left in 2023 to form the Mining and Energy Union.
For further comment contact Alison Rudman on 0452 247 764.