I’d long grown tired of being bullied by management and had become disillusioned with our union when they refused to help two people who had been dismissed unfairly. We had a visit from union leaders and members of the trades hall council before the election which saw John Howard come to be PM. One visitor , who later became a Labor heavyweight, thanked us in advance for voting Labor. I told him that I hadn’t decided who I was voting for and told him I might vote Liberal. I was verbally attacked and threatened by union officials and threatened by work colleagues. I complained to management and they refused to act. I voted Liberal, left my employment with a redundancy package a couple of years later and have never been a union member again, and haven’t, and never will, vote Labor again.
