Australia's union leaders warn of job losses from nuclear submarine deal: Sydney Morning Herald

SYDNEY -- Australia's peak union body has voiced its anger at the government decision to abruptly cancel its submarine deal with France in favour of building nuclear submarines.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) said the new AUKUS agreement with the United States and Britain robbed Australia's shipbuilding and manufacturing sectors of "decent jobs for generations to come," said a report from Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday.

The report said Australia's previous deal with France's Naval Group included an agreement that work worth at least 60 percent of the contract's value would be done in Australia, and yet the AUKUS agreement was unlikely to involve as much local work because the nuclear-enriched reactors would arrive fully built.

Moreover, the time that the first nuclear submarine would be in the water is much later than the scheduled time of the submarines under the French deal.

"We are disappointed with the 'abrupt and brutal' termination of Naval Group Australia's (NGA) contract with the government, which has put thousands of jobs at risk," the report quoted ACTU assistant secretary Scott Connolly and Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union assistant national secretary Glenn Thompson as saying.

"This decision is an 'act of betrayal' and robs Australia's shipbuilding and manufacturing communities of decent jobs for generations to come," they said.

The union leaders also lashed the government for not bothering to consult with representatives of the affected workers before scrapping the French deal and complained about an "alarming" lack of detail available about the new arrangement and its impact on the naval shipbuilding workforce.