John Robertson (New South Wales Politician) - Union Career

Union Career

During his time as electrician he became an organizer for the Electrical Trades Union in 1986. In 1991 he became an Industrial Officer with the Labor Council of New South Wales, and then its Executive Officer in 1998.

Later in life, he took up tertiary studies, and studied at the University of Technology, Sydney and graduated with a Graduate Diploma of Human Resources.

In 1998 he became the Assistant Secretary of the Labor Council. As Assistant Secretary, he had responsibility for the building and construction industry, breweries, local government, public sector policy, the oil industry and Sydney Water. In 2000, he ran the State Wage Case for the Labor Council before the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales. The case was historic in that it was the first one heard in Wollongong, New South Wales rather than Sydney. The Commission granted workers a $15 per week pay rise.

In 2001 he was elected unopposed as the Secretary of Unions NSW (formerly the Labor Council of New South Wales) replacing Michael Costa. One of his first acts as Secretary was to organize a blockade of the New South Parliament to protest against the introduction of workers compensation law reforms. The blockade did not change the government's plans. During his term as secretary, he headed the organisation as it sold its holiday property “Currawong” to finance a campaign to stop the implementation of WorkChoices by the Federal Howard Government. The deal was said to have benefited the developers as the purchase was at "about half the price" of other bids for the property. Currawong had been established in 1949 to allow the union movement to provide poor kids with decent holidays. Robertson denied the deal was at less than value as it was an unconditional sale compared to other bids which were conditional on building approval.

He has been on the Administrative Committee of the Australian Labor Party since 2005 and he became the Vice-President of Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) in 2006. As member of the group Labor for Refugees, Robertson fought in 2002 to overturn the Labor Party's policy on asylum seekers, which mimicked the policy of the Howard Government at the time. Robertson was a pivotal player in the campaign to replace Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley with Kevin Rudd in 2006.

Robertson has held other roles. In 1993 he was a member of the Building and Construction Industry Long Service Payments Corporation. He was a Director of WorkCover NSW between 2001 and 2007. In 2002 he was appointed a Director of the Parramatta Stadium Trust. In 2006 he became a member of the New South Wales Heritage Council. Robertson was a director of Energy Australia between 1998 and 2003, as well as a Director of 2KY Broadcasters between 1998 and 2001.

He has co-authored the book Your Rights at Work, which was published in 1993.