Workers' Bank opens Shopfront

Date: 17 October 2001

Maritime Union provides Members Equity a counter at its One Stop Shop

Workers bank CEO Anthony Wamsteker, former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty, the Fitzgibbon family and MUA officials past and present celebrated the official opening of the Fitzy's Cafe and the Sussex Street one-stop shop for Members' Equity and Virtual Communities last night.

The One Stop Shop is the one and only counter service for Members Equity ,a joint venture involving financial giant AXA and 41 industry super funds which was granted a banking licence in July this year.

The new bank offers low fee, high interest accounts to union members with home loans. It's public launch and internet service is not until early next year.

Fitzy's is in honour of the late Charlie Fitzgibbon, revered past general secretary of the wharfies' union (1961-1983)) who established the Maritime Workers' Credit Union, superannuation, leave loading and other entitlements, many of which flowed on to all Australian workers.

"As a union we glorify our past leaders," said former MUA national secretary John Coombs. "We glorify them unashamedly. They provide a powerful incentive to survive whatever the challenge. Past leaders set the standard and we strive to get within cooee. In the darkest moments of the Patrick Dispute I thought 'How would Tas, Jim or Fitzie deal with it?"

John Coombs said he suggested the cafe, which is just a couple of doors down from the old Trades Hall building, be named after Fitzgibbon to constantly remind everyone of a great trade union leader. He stressed the importance of workers and unions running their own financial institutions not just on the 'bottom line' philosophy but from a commitment to improve the lives of working men and women. A good example of how this worked was the Maritime Workers' Credit Union which waived mortgage and loan repayments during the Patrick lockout.

Bill Kelty also paid tribute to Charlie Fitzgibbon, recollecting on how the one time he was asked to represent the union he discovered that the employers had been provided the same handwritten notes from Charlie that he had. "And they followed Charlie's script exactly," he said.

Kelty also honoured ME CEO Anthony Wamsteker on the night for successfully building Members Equity into more than a $5 billion entity.

"Without Anthony it simply would not have occurred," said Kelty.

For his part Wamsteker said he viewed the workers' bank as a great adventure, thanking the MUA for giving it a presence and a human face at the one stop shop.

"It's been a great thing for us to be involved in," he said. "The MUA has been instrumental in building Super Home Loans and Members Equity. It's people like the MUA (members and officials) that make ME work."

The one stop shop is situated between the Credit Union and Fitzy's at 365 Sussex Street, Sydney. It provides an enquiries desk, computers and internet to help members get easy access to information on the Virtual Communities computer packages, superannuation and banking.

Financial transactions will be available before the end of the year, with ME outlets currently being processed through GiroPost.

Other guests at the opening included Charlie Fitzgibbon's daughter and grandchildren, representatives of Virtual Communities, officials from all three maritime unions, NZ maritime officials, MUA councillors and families.

Fitzy's proprietor Ali Cevikoz who provided the venue for the night said his father was never a member of a union because 70 years ago you did not have unions in Turkey and you could get labour as cheap as chips.

"Unions are the only viable force that can sway countries to understand that globally we are one family," said Cevikoz. "So I'm terribly proud to be here in charge of the cafe. This is just not a coffee shop it is a place where you can see the union movement at work."

For further information

Contact:	Zoe Reynolds
Union:	Maritime Union of Australia
Phone:	0417 229873
WWW:	http://mua.tcp.net.au/

LaborNET is proudly created, designed and programmed
by Social Change Online for the Labor Council of NSW
[Credits] [Site Matters]