Vic: George anoints likely successor as ACTU chief

AAP General News (Australia)
12-13-1999
Vic: George anoints likely successor as ACTU chief

By Trevor Chappell

MELBOURNE, Dec 13 AAP - ACTU president Jennie George today indicated Australian Education
Union (AEU) president Sharan (Sharan) Burrow as her likely successor to lead the nation's
peak union body next year.

Ms George, who confirmed today that she would leave the presidency of the ACTU on March
8, said there were "no surprises" in guessing who would succeed her.

"I'm very pleased that there is an emerging consensus that Sharan Burrow from the AEU,
my own union, will replace me," Ms George told reporters.

She said said she had made it very clear that she would not be leaving the ACTU until
she was assured that a woman would be replacing her.

Ms George had been expected to quit the ACTU in the middle of next year but announced
at the ACTU Council meeting in Sydney last week that she would leave earlier.

Ms George said she had decided to leave three months earlier because the federal government's
second wave of industrial relations reforms had recently been defeated.

She felt that after 26 years in the union movement she was also allowed to "indulge"

herself and feel satisfied that she was leaving on a high note.

"The defeat of the second wave, the most repressive and punitive legislation we have
seen, will always live in my memory as probably the high point of my personal achievement
as ACTU president," Ms George said.

Ms George said it was also better for the ACTU that a new president be in place before
next year's ACTU Congress.

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KEYWORD: ACTU GEORGE

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