COOK MP Jason O'Brien says he has been sidetracked from helping disgruntled energy maintenance workers by ongoing disciplinary action against him by the Electrical Trades Union.
About 12 workers protested outside Mr O’Brien’s Grafton St office yesterday while more protesters headed to Smithfield to rally at the office of Barron River MP Steve Wettenhall.
The workers were angry at an Ergon Energy decision not to renew a maintenance contract in April, set to cost 30 workers their jobs.
ETU Far North organiser Stuart Traill said the protest was also in relation to allegations a maintenance backlog was to blame for recent power outages in the region.
Mr O’Brien, who is in Brisbane for the first parliamentary sitting of the year, said he had not had time to look at the concerns of the workers.
"To be honest, I spent too much time last week attending to the ETU’s existing action against me," he said. "I would much rather be working with the union on this issue, but it is the ETU who have been distracting me."
Mr O’Brien is one of two MPs summoned by the ETU executive in Brisbane to explain their support for the Bligh Government’s plans to sell public assets. Mr Traill said similar protests would be held at the offices of Cairns MP Desley Boyle and Mulgrave MP Curtis Pitt in coming weeks.
