The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) have joined the call for the Reserve Bank to cut interests rates as part of a package to rescue the ailing Australian manufacturing industry.

 

Both unions have warned that the continued resources boom was generating a lopsided economy that would push the Australian dollar even higher and cause havoc as consumers of manufacturing goods turn to increasingly cheap Asian imports.

 

The announcement comes as AWU  National Secretary Paul Howes called for the Federal Government to increase its pressure on China to float its currency, the yuan, to ensure it would be valued at a more realistic and competitive value.

 

'We shouldn't be shy of saying to countries like China that if you want to be global player ... then you have to do what the rest of us have done, float your dollar and open yourself to the markets,'' Mr Howes told ABC radio.

 

''We have a situation where manufacturing, agriculture, tourism are all under huge threat, frankly, because of inaction by the RBA and some pretty dodgy economics from Treasury.''


''The mining boom is not benefiting the wider economy, it is ripping it apart,'' AMWU secretary Dave Oliver and Mr Howes said in a joint statement.