Unions intensified their campaign against Fiji yesterday, with postal workers
refusing to deliver mail to the country and dock
workers leaving more than 100 container boxes stranded on Australian wharves.
The secretary of the Communications Electrical and Plumbing Union, Jim Tudehope,
said mail to Fiji was piling up in the
international mail room in Sydney and post offices across Australia.
"Members are fully supporting the bans imposed on Fiji ... We did not
apply these bans lightly and they will not be lifted
until Fiji returns to a democratic reality," he said.
The ACTU warned yesterday that airline passengers travelling to Fiji would
be affected if the political crisis did not improve.
ACTU assistant secretary Bill Mansfield said unions were delaying airline departures
for Fiji and holiday-makers were being
encouraged to cancel trips to Fiji.
"If the violence continues we will escalate the campaign to include airline
passengers," he said.
Mr Mansfield said it would be a week before Fiji felt the effects of the unions'
campaign. "Two-thirds of the goods exported
from Fiji come to Australia. These bans will make a difference."
He said Fiji's economy relied on tourism and sugar exports and both were disrupted
by the union campaign. Australian
companies that sent textile products to Fiji for processing would also be affected,
he said.
The Fiji Australia Association yesterday criticised the ACTU for applying bans
that would affect ordinary Fijians. But Mr
Mansfield said Australian unions had no choice but to isolate Fiji. "We
cannot tolerate a government being held at gunpoint,
lawless gangs murdering people in the streets and the overthrowing of democratic
processes," he said.
If the crisis worsened, the ACTU would support a call by Fiji's Trades Union
Congress for an international peacekeeping
force to protect Fijians from armed gangs.
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