Sue Bolton

The deadline for the petition circulating among unionists calling on the ACTU to organise a national stoppage and mass protests on the day the federal government's Work Choices legislation is enacted has been extended until February 19. The ACTU's industrial relations committee will meet on February 21 to make decisions about the next stage of the industrial relations campaign.

Many unionists fear that the ACTU intends to wind down the campaign against the Coalition government's attacks on workers and unions and focus on getting the Labor Party elected at the next federal election.

Labor opposition leader Kim Beazley has said that a Labor government would “rip up” Work Choices, but he has not renounced his earlier statements that a Labor government would support Australian Workplace Agreements (individual contracts).

The petition for a national stoppage will be presented to the ACTU before its industrial relations campaign meeting. An increasing number of unions and unionists are circulating and endorsing the petition. The latest to endorse it are the Monash branch of the National Tertiary Education Union and Richmond Valley Unions, which covers north-eastern NSW.

At a recent Unions NSW meeting, officials and delegates from a wide range of unions signed the petition.

To obtain copies of the petition, phone 0413 377 978.

From Green Left Weekly, February 8, 2006.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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