Published: 15 May 2009
Maritime Union helps Kimberley Land Council in bid to get indigenous people jobs on LNG facility
Up to 6000 people could work on the facility and the KLC says a union agreement is the best way of safeguarding the rights of workers.
KLC executive director Wayne Bergmann said the agreement was built on a long history of Aboriginal people and trade unions working together to improve the living standards.
"Unions have long been allies to local indigenous people in the struggle for land rights and better living standards," Mr Bergmann told the local media. "They stood alongside the founders of the KLC, on the barricades of the Noonkanbah dispute, and they stand alongside us today as we strive for better employment opportunities for our people, here in the Kimberley."
The agreement is between the KLC, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, the Maritime Union of Australia, the Electrical Trades Unions, the Australian Workers Union and Transport Workers Union.
The Aboriginal union alliance was widely reported on SBS Ethnic Radio, NITV Sydney, Perth radio, the Australian and local media.
