Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is about people – people working together to make things better for all. As the global justice organisation of the Australian union movement, each and every APHEDA supporter, member, partner, activist and participant here in Australia and all around the world contributes to the work it takes to tackle inequality and injustice.
Meet Tim
Tim Nelthorpe, Organiser at the NUW, participated in an APHEDA Study tour to the Thai Myanmar Border in 2012 and later returned to Burma where he was invited to train workers from a number of industries in Yangon with Action Labour Rights (APHEDA partner organisation).
What does it mean to be union to you?
Being union means working collectively with working people to empower the dispossessed, to give people dignity and to give working people a voice.
What does it mean to be APHEDA to you?
It means looking beyond our immediate horizon to the struggle taking place in South East Asia, in Indigenous communities, in areas who can not physically organise but we can support other people in their effort.
Why do you think it’s important for APHEDA to grow its membership base, those contributing monthly to the work, to 20,000 by 2025?
So that workers in the core of the global economy have the resources they need to fight capital.
What part of APHEDA’s work do you feel most connected to/proud of? Why?
Organising in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, areas that are connected to my own on the ground organising with migrants from SE Asia and elsewhere.
What do you see as the issues of greatest concern to focus on into the future?
Capacity building and organising with workers connected into Global Supply chains as they have the most immediate power to change the global economy.
When you have one-on-one conversations with people asking them to join Union Aid Abroad as a member how do you describe the work and ask people to join? Do they say yes?!
I say if you are a union member and you care about Organising for systematic change, you need to have a global focus. APHEDA is the easiest way to have a contribution to something you know is achieving this.
