Andrew Casey

Andrew Casey joined his first union when he worked as a boilermaker’s assistant at the then Cockatoo Island Dockyard in Sydney Harbour. It was the height of the Vietnam War and the Dockyard was where submarines were refurbished for the war effort. The place was crawling with security people cross-examining union activists about their role in the peace movement.

Since those now almost long-forgotten years, Andrew has been a member of a number of unions and was active in several, including the former Australian Journalists Association (now the MEAA).

Apart from several years as an industrial reporter, political editor and foreign correspondent for Fairfax Media, Andrew worked for nearly a decade at the ACTU, during the Kelty Accord years, and has worked for a variety of unions in communications roles — the CFMEU, the LHMU (now United Voice), the AWU and the ANMF.

He is also one of the original correspondents and editors of the global union news portal LabourStart, where he triggered, over a decade ago, one of the first Australian email campaigns for union workers on behalf of the LHMU NSW Branch against the Sydney Hilton Hotel.

You can follow Andrew Casey on Twitter @AndrewSCasey.