By June McKay

CANBERRA -- In a period of international trade agreements, Australian workers can't ignore international issues and working conditions, Greens Senator Dee Margetts told a Canberra Public Sector Union dinner on June 22. The dinner was part of the ACT PSU women's conference, attended by 90 women.

The two-day conference included plenaries and workshops on wages, agency bargaining, women campaigning in the union, older women in the work force and the Wollongong Jobs for Women campaign.

The conference was opened by Grace Coe, appointed ACT Woman of the Year for her services to the Koori community. Speakers at the opening plenary included feminist lawyer and author Jocelyn Scutt. In contrast, the 1993 conference featured Liberal parliamentarian Bronwyn Bishop.

Branch secretary Cath Garvan was well received at the second plenary when she spoke on conditions and wages for women in the public service.

Robynne Murphy from the Jobs for Women campaign in Wollongong described the history of the struggle to defeat the discriminatory hiring practices of BHP subsidiary Australian Iron and Steel.

A resolution from a workshop on women and wages opposed the current divisive agency bargaining arrangement. It called for the public service to be considered a single enterprise for future negotiations. While the PSU national executive has put forward a proposal for a public service-wide approach next year, this still leaves the majority of government departments and agencies also following separate agency arrangements. This was one of many resolutions for action passed unanimously by the final plenary session.

The conference was the first ACT branch women's conference at which workshops generated resolutions for action. It reflected the changing character of the ACT PSU branch. In late 1993 the PSU Challenge team defeated incumbent ALP left supporters. Since then the branch has begun to put into practice ideas such as democratic union functioning and involvement of the membership.

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