Using members funds to get their sordid kicks is disgusting, but hopefully it cements the demise of unions because they have always been nothing but a vampire. Sick fucks.
Seems the corruption is endemic within the ALP
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 01,00.html
A SECOND influential ALP figure has been accused of spending union money on escorts, with enemies of Victorian union boss Jeff Jackson releasing bank statements showing payments to the same Sydney brothel where federal MP Craig Thomson's credit card was allegedly used.
Police were called to a union meeting in Melbourne last night as it descended into yelling and brawling between rival camps.
The meeting was called by Mr Jackson to reassert his control on the union's management committee. Mr Jackson, a prominent figure in the Victorian ALP, dismissed the claims against him as a politically motivated "dirty tricks campaign" and denied any misuse of union funds.
As secretary of the Health Services Union's number 1 branch in Victoria, Mr Jackson has been embroiled in a bitter power struggle with branch president Pauline Fegan.
Ms Fegan last night called on him to resign over the emergence of credit card statements showing the payments to 'Keywed Pty Ltd" - which takes money for clients of the Sydney Outcalls escort agency.
"It's a union-issued credit card and it has been issued to Jeff Jackson," Ms Fegan said. "On the face of it, it appears the union credit card has been used for escort agencies," she said. "He should have resigned ages ago, that's the reality."
The factional dispute is at the centre of the claims of misuse of union credit cards for prostitutes and election campaign funds that threaten the career of Mr Thomson and could damage other senior party figures.
Mr Thomson yesterday strenuously denied allegations his union credit cards were used to pay for escort services and to help bankroll his election campaign for the federal NSW seat of Dobell in 2007.
In a terse statement, Mr Thomson dismissed as "incorrect and false" allegations that he had misused credit cards during his term as federal secretary of the Health Services Union, including cash advances exceeding $100,000 over five years.
Mr Jackson stressed that - unlike the Commonwealth credit card statement alleged to be Mr Thomson's - his name was not even listed on the union Bendigo Gold Visa card concerned.
Federal Labor, however, is already in damage control over the issue because of the risk that it could engulf not only Mr Thomson, who is chairman of the House of Representatives economics committee, but also his mentor, the new incoming ALP national president and HSU union chief Michael Williamson.
