Landline

"It was not until I came to the national delegate's conference that I realised how big the union is and how much it is doing," said TT Line Call Centre delegate Julie Ansell. "It's got a lot of power."

Julie has been in the union two and a half years. She is one of 161 people who work in the Devonport administration office where workers are mostly at their desk, phone to ear, getting people booked on board one of the three TT Line vessels.

Up until February 2002 when Tasmania Branch Secretary Mick Wickham came into the office to talk to the mostly female workforce, there was no MUA presence.

"Mick announced that two new ships were coming on," Julie recalls. "I guess the changes made people feel a bit of job insecurity and that was enough to get many of them joining the union.

"I think the difference in being in the MUA is it gives you job security, something to fall back on," said Julie. "When it comes to the crunch you know you're not alone. Our delegates have to get together and promote the union more. Most of the staff are permanent part time and are guaranteed 15 hours a week. We've got women on maternity leave and another couple about to have babies, but no paid parental leave. That's something we'll have to look at in our upcoming enterprise agreement talks.

"I tell them we need more women in the union. I've got a few signed up that way. It was great in Sydney getting to meet all the women in the MUA women's network after being part of the phone hook-ups run each month. Now I can always put a face to whoever is talking. But it would be better is we could have everyone here involved in the union. We'd achieve so much more."