The usually subdued PIAA election campaign is getting increasingly rowdy, with president David Leach coming under personal attack by one candidate.
The inflammatory attack on Leach’s character from national board candidate Roy Aldrich, director of Eastern Studios, comes after the incumbent PIAA president publically backed several ‘progressive’ candidates.
Leach framed the October 8 election as a battle for the industry’s future between those who want to continue its transition and those who want to bury their heads in the sand.
A ProPrint poll that closed this morning found 47 per cent of respondents plan to vote for progressive candidates with only 9 per cent each for conservative or other candidates, with 35 per cent not planning on voting at all.
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Leach openly backed Kieran May from Across Business and Chris Segaert from Permanent Press for the two at-large national positions over Aldrich, prompting Aldrich to accuse him of ‘trying to select his own board’.
“I find his attitude demeaning, disrespectful and lacking integrity… It is purely a figment of his imagination that we want to take the industry backwards,” he said in an open letter to the industry.
“When I nominated I did not expect to be pilloried by the incumbent president, David Leach or to read of his blatant support for his selected or stacked process rather than have a transparent election of board members, which only brings the association into disrepute by his printed attitude.”
Aldrich then went on to ‘question the integrity and credibility’ of Leach and call him a ‘desperate person’ and asked if ‘the board (is) that fragile and the CEO that insecure’ that they need to attack those who question how they operate.
Leach hit back at Aldrich saying while he respects his right to express his opinion, ‘there are several incorrect claims within those comments’.
“I am surprised that anyone wanting to help the industry has chosen to be so personally critical of the board and chief executive with whom they would need to work if elected,” he says.
“I know that elected board members will find many great things underway and many of the issues recently raised are already being addressed.”
Aldrich says printers are ‘resigning in large numbers’ from the PIAA and that it has ‘lost its regional contact,’ and could do with stronger local voices at regional and state level to create a more inclusive association.
This is not the first time Aldrich has criticised the PIAA for going in a new direction. In March he slammed the mostly on-the-job structure of Future Print, saying the traditional off-site model, which was used by RMIT until it shut down its long-standing print training in 2012, provides the best training for apprentices.
“The message I’m getting from people in the industry is that on-the-job training is not getting it done and that they would almost rather send apprentices to South Australia where they can get what RMIT used to do,” he said then.
“There’s an absolute need for it. It might not be what the PIAA wants, but it is what the industry thinks is essential.”
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As Monday is a public holiday in some states, members wanting to vote should post their ballots today so they make it to Sydney by the October 8 deadline.
Progressive national candidate Kieran May questions whether the lack of enthusiasm in the industry about the elections is ‘simply a sign of apathy, or is there more to it?’
In reply, BHB Printing managing director Craig Howlett says it is ‘likely a bit of both’.
“It is difficult for members to vote with any knowledge of the candidates unless you know them personally,” he says.
“The PIAA only provided a paragraph of each of the people contesting the ballot, how are we supposed to know who to vote for without an in-depth analysis on a sheet of paper?”
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