AMWU members in the Newcastle area have spent the week leading up to the Labor Party state conference hammering home their anti-privatisation message to their local ALP members.

The state conference meets this weekend in Sydney and is expected to be a resounding defeat for Premier Morris Iemma, Treasurer Michael Costa and privatisation.

AMWU NSW Secretary Paul Bastian said that the conference decision must be respected by the state Labor Government.

“Privatisation will be bad for workers who lose their jobs, bad for consumers whose prices rise, and bad for the state which will lose a valuable asset.

“If the community, the workers, and the ALP conference itself all reject privatisation, the government should not be able to turn around and do it anyway.”

Hundreds of union members from the 3 power corporations in the Hunter region took their views to the offices of their local members Jodi Mackay MP, and Frank Terenzini MP this week. Last week over 400 workers turned up at Treasurer Costa’s office.

But each time they found no-one home.

AMWU Newcastle organiser, Daniel Wallace, said that the workers views were backed by the local community, and that the local MPs should be representative of the local views.

“The fact that they won’t come and meet us really is a disgrace.”