Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers

Infobox Union
name= AIMPE
country= Australia
affiliation= ACTU, ITF, ALP
members= 2,476
full_name= Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers
native_name=


founded= 1881 (as the "Australasian Institution of Marine Engineers")
current=
head=
dissolved_date=
dissolved_state=
merged_into=
office= Sydney, NSW, Australia
people= Terry Snee, federal president
website= [http://www.aimpe.asn.au www.aimpe.asn.au]
footnotes= Logo motto reads "Not for one but for all"

The Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIMPE) is both an Australian professional association and a trade union. They are registered with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions.The AIMPE represents engineers in coastal shipping, the offshore oil and gas industries, towing and dredging.

They cover, in the maritime industry, employed and unemployed marine engineers, engineers or electricians on ships, people in training to be a marine engineer, offiers of AIMPE, (when holding appropriate certification) power plant engineers, and (when holding appropriate certification) Charge Engineers and Assistant Charge Engineers employed in New South Wales by Caltex Refining. AIMPE also cover independent contracters who meet the criteria listed. According to the AIMPE's rules, the maritime industry is an operation on any sea going vessel. It excludes shore based operations in the maritime industry outside of shore based training.

Their membership is extremely expensive for an Australian trade union ($1000 per annum, compared with $337 for the TWU for example). The AIMPE's status as a professional association with a membership base paid as a labor aristocracy leaves the union vulnerable to becoming right wing; but the difficulty of organising such a highly paid membership has also made the AIMPE very focused on member self-activity as a way to maintain numbers.

The AIMPE is very concerned with the use of flags of convenience by employers as a way of avoiding occupational health and safety conditions and employment conditions.

Their federal president is Terry Snee.

History

The AIMPE official website recognises the conflict of interest it has, that marine engineers have, "endeavoured to find a common­ality of interest with their employers" in "a world where capitalist efficiency could lead to excesses against which workers felt it necessary to protect themselves by combining for fair wages and conditions." The AIMPE has historically been divided between a professional organisation supporting the bosses (much like APESMA), while also having the anti-boss `Not for one but for all' mentality of a trade union.

The AIMPE began as a craft union, using a monopoly on skill to bargain with employers. The general increase in the level of skill over the 20th century has broken this skill monopoly. Given the sometimes forcible merger of small craft unions into large industrial unions in Australia, it is unusual that the AIMPE has not merged with the industrial union in the maritime industry, the MUA.

External links

* [http://www.aimpe.asn.au/ Official website]
* [http://www.atua.org.au/biogs/ALE0183b.htm Australian Trade Union Archives entry]