Sam Wainwright
If anything summed up the mood of defiance at the National Union Fightback Conference at Trades Hall in Melbourne on June 11, it was the hero’s welcome accorded to former Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) Victorian secretary Craig Johnston. Johnston was released from Loddon prison on May 27 after serving nine months for his participation in an industrial dispute. As he took the stage, the near-capacity crowd of more than 350 lifted the roof, chanting “Craig Johnston — here to stay!”
Maritime Union of Australia Western Australian secretary Chris Cain spoke for most when he said, “I believe the type of trade unionism that Craig Johnston has brought to Victoria needs to be brought to more unionists around the country”.
Although the AMWU’s national office advised its Victorian officials and organisers that they could not address the conference in an official capacity, the attendance of more than 50 rank-and-file members of that union showed their keenness to see the issues debated out.
While the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and many union officials have explained the drastic nature of the attack on workers’ rights and the union movement planned by PM John Howard’s government, they have only slowly and grudgingly agreed to organise activity that might force the government to retreat. The purpose of the conference, explained organiser Sue Bolton, was “to gather together unionists who are serious about stopping the government”. The event was initiated by the Socialist Alliance and sponsored and attended by many officials and organisers from the more militant section of the union movement.
While there is a growing awareness in the wider community of the scope of the Howard government’s anti-worker agenda, not so well known is its tailor-made attack on the construction division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union. The Building Industry Taskforce will soon have the power to coerce people to give evidence, with the threat of a $6600 fine or six months’ jail. Victorian CFMEU secretary Martin Kingham explained that, “Construction workers will lose our right to silence, something that every other citizen enjoys — the right to not incriminate yourself to a hostile investigation.”
Despite this help from Howard, Victoria’s construction bosses have been rushing to sign up to new three-year agreements with the CFMEU. Kingham said, “That’s employers voting with their feet to avoid being the battleground”. He pointed to the strength and discipline of the CFMEU’s members in winning a 36-hour-week industry standard in the midst of the Building Industry Royal Commission witch-hunt. He said, “It’s an example of what workers can achieve when they feel they’ve got a stake and what they do can make a difference”.
Electrical Trades Union Victorian organiser Wes Hayes explained that in addition to pushing through new enterprise agreements (EBAs), his union is getting employers to sign common law deeds that commit them to many of the provisions that would become inadmissible to EBAs under the government’s legislation. However, Hayes is aware that the government could move the goalposts again. He stressed that legal defences are “worthless unless we have strong, militant and committed members”.
The dominant theme of the conference was the need to defy and de-legitimise the federal government’s anti-union offensive, regardless of how much of its package is actually passed by the Senate. Kingham said, “It’s one thing to have laws, but it’s another thing to apply them ... so them passing the legislation is not the end of the campaign”.
Cain agreed, emphasising that the union movement has to prepare its members and supporters to “defy his laws en masse. If you believe in rank-and-file trade unionism, you have to break the law ... Sooner or later there’s going to be casualties when we do, but if we do it ... en masse, then we’ll win.”
Citing the 1998 waterside dispute, when “the construction workers marched down to the Patrick picket-line”, Cain said “that defied Howard and Reith’s laws and the dogs and all the rest of it. Now we can do that again, that’s the way to win this blue. If you think about it, they can’t put 100,000 people in jail. But they can pick us off individually and sue us individually.”
Industrial lawyer Marcus Clayton from Slater & Gordon used other historical examples to emphasise this. He pointed out that the right to strike has never been recognised in Australia and industrial action has always been illegal to a greater or lesser degree, and that the relaxing of penal provisions has always come through the outright defiance of them by the union movement. He also urged unionists not to be distracted by legal strategies, emphasising that these are only likely to be successful if they are part of broad mass campaigns.
Johnston pointed out that some unions have already been staring down the government’s laws and winning better conditions for workers. This approach, he argued, needs to be generalised by the whole union movement in order to defeat the current offensive by the employers. “In the last 10 years we’ve faced a bad industrial environment, with the laws passed back in 1996. Despite that, there have been many wins by many unions right around the country. We need to be saying that unions have taken it on, broken the laws and won the disputes. We need to be highlighting that ... because unfortunately there’s too much doom and gloom about how you can’t do this and you can’t do that. Well that’s bullshit. There have been many victories.”
A strategy of defying the anti-union laws depends not just on cross-union solidarity, but a concerted effort to reach out to all of the working class. While supporting the ACTU’s $6.4 million publicity campaign, Cain emphasised that this can not substitute for big mobilisations. “What will do a better job and get more publicity will be 100,000 workers on the street.”
NSW Greens Senator Kerry Nettle believes she can help get the union message out to a wider audience. “What we can contribute”, she said, “is to get this message out to a slightly different group of people who don’t have that direct connection to the trade union movement ... as part of a broad-based coalition”. Johnston argued that unions had to be active builders of alliances, and not sit back and wait for other sectors to come to them. He observed the diverse range of protests coming up in Melbourne and concluded that “we need a union presence at every demo”.
Joan Doyle, Victorian secretary of the postal workers’ union, and Scott Wilson from the Queensland branch of the Electrical Trades Union suggested that the challenges presented by the government’s attack would give the unions a chance to throw off conservative attitudes, recruit new members and regenerate themselves. Remarking on the multi-million-dollar salary paid to the head of Australia Post, Doyle said that the government’s naked championing of the big-business cause gave unions the chance to raise bigger questions about social spending and workers’ control of industry.
Johnson, Kingham and National Tertiary Education Union Victorian secretary Matthew McGowan all stressed the need to press the ALP to make a public commitment to repeal the anti-union laws. Kingham also pointed out that the state Labor governments could significantly help unions do their job, particularly ensuring their right of entry, via state occupational health and safety laws. But, he added, “They won’t do it unless there is coordinated, combined pressure on them”.
Mike Treen from the Unite union in New Zealand also addressed the conference, sharing experiences of resisting the anti-union laws in his country.
The conference, while highly charged, was a serious and sober assessment of the union movement’s challenges and tasks. Proposals adopted included pledging to build the June 30/July 1 actions against the anti-union laws as big as possible; to campaign for more nationally coordinated action; and to defend any union that is singled out for attack by the government and any unionist who is charged under the anti-union laws. The conference also initiated a loose national network of unionists who want a more active campaign. A website and email list will be established and another national conference may be organised next year. To join the network email <fightbackconference@gmail.com>.
Hayes summarised the value of the conference’s approach when he said, “Continuing the education and training of our members is the first and foremost priority ... and encouraging and promoting ... direct action as the means to gain the results. We all know from our experience that the best form of development is through elevating the debate on militant unionism, not shying away from it.”
From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.
