CFMEU official, Brian Parker tells the Royal Commission into Trade Unions of the good work the CFMEU does for the families of workers killed on the job.
Every year they have a memorial dinner for families....
Truth is .....
they have never acknowledged my existence.
and I suspect that:
I have tried to bring it to their attention that I exist several times in the past 12 years
(since they put up THAT statue!)
My approach has not always been one of confrontation.
I have been ignored many times - I no longer have the patience or the manners that I might have once shown.
A response has never been provided.
I am still waiting for an answer to a simple question from both the CFMEU and Bill Shorten after writing to them in mid-September:
"Is my father's name on the memorial wall at Cessnock too?"
Every year, I read about these public commemorations.
It's a yearly reminder of my insignificance as officials consider and stress their own importance.
Somehow, I feel that I don't even figure in my own life.
How would you feel?
Read what they say:
It's an annual thing......
Reply to email sent to Bill Shorten 16th September 2014:
When I was a member -
I was an ALP Branch Secretary for 6 years.
They have my details.
A return email would suffice.
Replies to emails sent to CFMEU, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and responses to phone calls:
= 0
I was only 11, when my dad didn't come home from work.
Some facts about
Childhood Traumatic Grief:
Clinical characteristics and the implications of Childhood traumatic grief (CTG).
CTG describes a state where a child or adolescent loses a family member in circumstances that are subjectively or objectively traumatic; impinging upon the normal process of grieving. (Cohen & Mannarino, 2004)
Pynos (1992) states trauma related thoughts, images and memories may be triggered by at least three types of reminders:
Trauma reminders are places, people, situations, objects, sights, smells, sounds, thoughts or memories that remind the bereaved child of the death and trauma associated with the death. (Pynoos, 1992)
Loss reminders are places, people, situations, objects, sights, smells, sounds, thoughts or memories that remind the bereaved child of deceased person. (i.e, Birthdays, holidays, weddings, family gatherings, pictures, favourite foods, places, books, sayings, music etc.) (Pynoos, 1992)
Change reminders are situations, people, places, or things that are cause to observe changed circumstances that are the result of the traumatic death. (.e, moving to a new house, not having someone to walk you down the aisle, father son events, absence at graduations, the absence of a grandparent upon the birth of a child, situations requiring comfort or needing someone to turn to, and just everyday situations, learning to drive, learning how to mend a fuse, etc.) (Pynoos, 1992)
In children, complicated bereavement, loss of a traumatic nature affects security-enhancement due to the bereaved person’s dependency within the relationship. (Cohen & Mannarino, 2004)
There is a growing body of research concerning the effects of traumatic and sudden grief upon cognitive processes in children. Studies in neuroscience have promoted evidence supporting lasting biological changes that occur within the hippocampal and pituitary regions of the brains of children affected by traumatic grief. Contemporary studies have also been conducted into grief conditions including delayed onset of grief and predictive indicators to pre-disposed depressive conditions resulting from grief (i.e, when the child reaches the age of the deceased parent, difficulties and symptoms of delayed grief responses may manifest.)
Bibliography:
Agid, O., Shapira, B., Zislin, J., Ritsner, M., Hanin, B., & Murad, H. et al. (1999). Environment and vulnerability to major psychiatric illness: a case control study of early parental loss in major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Molecular Psychiatry, 4(2), 163--172.
Boelen, P., & Prigerson, H. (2012). Commentary on the Inclusion of Persistent Complex Bereavement-Related Disorder in DSM-5. Death Studies, 36(9), 771-794. doi:10.1080/07481187.2012.706982
Cohen, J., & Mannarino, A. (2004). Treatment of childhood traumatic grief. Journal Of Clinical Child And Adolescent Psychology, 33(4), 819--831.
Doka, K. (2002). Disenfranchised grief. Champaign, Ill.: Research Press.
Jacobs, Carolyn Mazure, Holly Prige, S. (2000). Death Studies, 24(3), 185-199. doi:10.1080/074811800200531
Lattanzi-Licht, M., & Doka, K. (2005). Living with grief (pp. 268 - 279). London: Taylor & Francis.
Papa, A., Rummel, C., Garrison-Diehn, C., & Sewell, M. (2013). Behavioral activation for pathological grief. Death Studies, 37(10), 913--936.
Prigerson, H., Horowitz, M., Jacobs, S., Parkes, C., Aslan, M., & Goodkin, K. et al. (2009). Prolonged Grief Disorder: Psychometric Validation of Criteria Proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11. Plos Med,6(8), e1000121. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000121
Prigerson, H., Horowitz, M., Jacobs, S., Parkes, C., Aslan, M., & Goodkin, K. et al. (2009). Prolonged grief disorder: Psychometric validation of criteria proposed for DSM-V and ICD-11. Plos Medicine,6(8), 1000121
.
Pynoos, R. 1992, Grief and trauma in children and adolescents, Bereavement Care, vol 11, no 1, pp.2--10.
Savikko, N., Routasalo, P., Tilvis, R., Strandberg, T., & Pitk\"al\"a, K. (2006). Loss of parents in childhood--associations with depression, loneliness, and attitudes towards life in older Finnish people. International Journal Of Older People Nursing, 1(1), 17--24.
Schut, M. (1999). THE DUAL PROCESS MODEL OF COPING WITH BEREAVEMENT: RATIONALE AND DESCRIPTION. Death Studies, 23(3), 197-224. doi:10.1080/074811899201046
Siegel, D. (2001). Toward an interpersonal neurobiology of the developing mind: Attachment relationships, ?mindsight,? and neural integration. Infant Mental Health Journal, 22(1-2), 67-94. doi:10.1002/1097-0355(200101/04)22:1<67::aid-imhj3>3.0.co;2-g
Stroebe, M., Boelen, P., van den Hout, M., Stroebe, W., Salemink, E., & van den Bout, J. (2007). Ruminative coping as avoidance. European Archives Of Psychiatry And Clinical Neuroscience, 257(8), 462-472. doi:10.1007/s00406-007-0746-y
Wolfelt, A. (1996). Healing the bereaved child. Fort Collins, Colo.: Companion Press.
I exist!
It's time
for a
My husband is currently unemployed.
I have just accepted as a Commonwealth Supported Placement at university, after working extremely hard to get good marks in my first 4 units, so that this could happen. (My name is not Frances Abbott.)
I took up an apprenticeship after leaving school, because there was no way that I would inflict the worry and uncertainty of early HECS on my Mum. (On a widow's pension Mum couldn't keep me at university in the city.)
Raising a family, we have suffered the slings, arrows and indignity of labour hire. I hate labour hire. It should have never been more than a small niche market, for semi-retired blokes to pick up casual hours. It is no way to raise a family.
I repeat, It is no way to raise a family.
We have seen wages go down, my husband has had over 50 jobs in 15 years while servicing a mortgage and keeping a roof over our heads.
My husband is not in an obscure industry, he is a qualified mainly in payroll and HR, he has extensive experience in payroll.
It is absolutely appalling that a union is in bed with labour hire. I have hated living from one labour hire contract to another. It is an extremely stressful existence. My husband worked for Jamies Hardie once. Not because he wanted to work for James Hardie, (it went against his conscience. But, unfortunately, when you are struggling for survival conscience does not put food upon the table.)
Brian Parker has a "vocation” and a job for life with a union.
My husband is unemployed.
My husband could run rings around Mr Parker
Brian Parker has a job.
Yes, Brian Parker has a job!?!
CFMEU members need to ask themselves, what do the people who represent them really do? Do they want to be governed and represented by sham and deception? Their illusion is not my delusion or reality.
It makes me sick to see that this is what is allegedly occurring.
It fully explains union reluctance to pay nothing more than lip service to opposing labour hire as an increasingly mainstream means of employment.
Graphic above courtesy: thedailytelegraph.com.au
Contact me here:
WTF ???
It is now well over 2 months since I contacted MP Bill Shorten's office via email, and since he ripped off the lines "You'll never walk alone" from the Hillsborough speech.
I still do not have an answer to the simple question that I asked:
"Is my father's name on the miners' memorial at Cessnock too?"
In 9 months time they will be doing it all again..... I will watch them do it, all the while thinking WTF?
