This month, we’re wishing a long and happy retirement to lead Queensland organiser and MEU legend Richard ‘Buff’ Staker. Buff has been instrumental in growing the Mining and Energy Union in Queensland over decades of service, as well as imparting his deep experience and union values on the next generation MEU organisers.
For me, Buff embodies enduring values of the trade union movement and how we put them into action.
Buff began his union career as a site delegate at the Dalrymple Coal Terminal near Hay Point, Central Queensland. In the early 1990s, leadership issues in the Queensland Branch of the union necessitated introducing fresh rank-and-file members into official roles. Despite never intending to stand for such a position, Buff put his hand up at a site meeting at Dalrymple as a short-term stopgap.
Buff took on his first full-time position with the union, overseeing the coal terminals in Rockhampton and Mackay. It was the start of a 35-year career in the union movement.
In this time, Buff earned a reputation for his old-school union values. He holds a deep intolerance for unfairness and takes great pride in sticking up for people being mistreated. Those who know Buff know this is because he genuinely and deeply believes in the trade union project and loves that he gets to contribute to it and build union power.
In December 2006, Buff became one of the original organisers with Unite, a national organising team to supplement the efforts of our lodges and districts in growing the union. Buff proved invaluable in setting up Unite with the foundations for success.
Over the years, Buff honed his skills as an organiser, proving able to move very easily between different groups of people and understand their concerns. Rather than front loading the conversation or resorting to high-pressure tactics, Buff has always taken potential members on a journey, listened to their concerns, and helped them see why joining is both the right thing to do, and in their interest.
Buff’s adaptability is also worth noting. He was in his fifties when he became an organiser, a totally unique profession and one he never expected to undertake. He underwent a personal journey going from worker to official to organiser which made him as source of experience and perspective for the other members of the Unite team.
In 2020, Buff became the Lead Organiser for Unite in Queensland. He brought a lot of cohesion and harmony to Unite, helping to grow the outfit during a challenging and busy time. Under his watch the Queensland Unite team would double in size, bringing on four new organisers to help service the thousands of labour hire mineworkers now in the industry.
Many of these workers were first exposed to the work of the union through our campaign for Same Job Same Pay. In Buff’s tenure, several thousand new members were recruited to the ranks of the Queensland district, many of them labour hire operators excited about the prospect of pay parity with their directly employed workmates.
With Buff and the whole Queensland team welcoming these workers into the MEU, the District has been able to capitalise on increasing worker power in the industry, and deliver Same Job Same Pay for hundreds of labour hire miners. Significantly, the BHP OS decision handed down last month paves the way for thousands of miners to be about $30,000 a year better off and should be a wake-up call that the labour hire rort is done for good.
The aim of every good unionist should be to defend the gains won by those that came before you and build on them for those that come after. Buff undoubtedly accomplished this, leaving the union and the movement better than he found it. I have the utmost confidence that the new generation of MEU organisers will continue this legacy.
Mitch Hughes
President Mining and Energy Union Queensland District
