Published: 15 Jul 2011
Australian trade unions could target the upcoming Rugby World Cup and Pacific Islands Forum in New Zealand, to support their Fiji counterparts.
The ABC reports that ACTU national executive has voted unanimously to support the Congress by approaching the Australian government and companies who do business with Fiji.
ACTU President, Ged Kearney told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat a small working group of unionists had been set up to look at timelines for action targeting specific events, such as the World Cup and Pacific Islands Forum meetings.
"It may be that we can talk about mobilisations around that," the secretary said.
Although Fiji was not part of the forum and would not attend, she was sure other Pacific leaders would take the message away with them.
Ms Kearney said if demonstrations and protests do not work, the union movement could widen their action to include trade agreements.
"We will be making sure that any trade agreements the government does sanction actually has guarantees for not only the safety of unionists but decent labour laws," she said.
"If that can't be guaranteed then we would be hoping that those agreements don't go ahead."
