Graham Matthews & Sue Bolton
At its March 7 meeting, the Australian Council of Trade Unions executive passed a resolution that called for “A week of activities, June 25-July 2, with rallies to be held on Wednesday 28 June 2006, under the National Community Action banner”.
This was a change of position from the ACTU’s industrial relations campaign meeting on February 21, where only the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC), the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) had supported any kind of mass rallies or stoppages in the first half of the year. The rest of the meeting didn’t believe that any nationwide protests should be held until November.
Green Left Weekly talked to a number of union leaders in New South Wales and Queensland about what led to the change of heart in the ACTU.
Queensland Electrical Trades Union (ETU) deputy secretary Peter Simpson told GLW that he felt “it was pretty much pressure from affiliates” that led to the ACTU agreeing to a national day of protest on June 28.
NSW CFMEU secretary Andrew Ferguson said that a Unions NSW meeting held two weeks before the ACTU executive had called for a week of action against the laws in the first half of the year. National Union of Workers NSW state secretary Derek Belan confirmed that there “was pressure from the Unions NSW executive”.
Belan said that NUW members were at the November 15 rally in 2005 en masse. “We were the largest group there in Sydney, and our membership are asking 'When’s it on again?’ Our membership knows that industrial action is a good way of letting their employers know that if they’re going to use these laws, they’re going to get it in the neck.”
Simpson said that ETU members in Queensland responded really well to the November 15 rally. He used the example of Toowoomba, a regional city west of Brisbane: “We normally get 300 to May Day in Toowoomba. We had 1200 for the November 15 rally last year. ETU members are most certainly wanting action like November 15 in the first half of this year.”
'Mass action is very important’
In Sydney, Ferguson said, the majority of CFMEU members didn’t work on November 15. He anticipates that a very large section of the membership will support action on June 28.
He added: “Mass action is very important in making a connection between political and industrial campaigning. I don’t think that marginal seat campaigning is enough in itself. Mass actions similar to November 15 last year prepare workers to fight, both against the government but also on the job.”
Simpson said, “Mass rallies are an integral part of the campaign. Our members understand the legislation and they can see the ramifications of it. They know they have to campaign as part of this national push to improve that position.”
On November 15, Simpson added, Queensland ETU members were impressed with the Sky Channel broadcast in so far as it gave them a hook-in with other states. “But as soon as the Sky Channel speakers finished, they wanted to jump out the door and march to the local member’s office.”.
Belan is happy to have rallies and marches, as well as Sky Channel meetings. “I’m just hoping that there won’t be 196 venues in NSW again. I think maybe five or six venues in NSW would be more than enough. The mass gatherings are always important so people can see there are other workers out there. June 28 should be a national stoppage.”
Ferguson doesn’t think the rallies have any direct impact on the federal government, but he said, “They give the membership a sense of empowerment, which is very important. They also create an opportunity to build solidarity across unions. They are a public display of opposition to Howard. If there’s not mobilisation, then a paralysis can set into the movement.”
Simpson felt that the rallies did have an impact, saying: “You only have to look at the polls. In the week of November 15, Howard was at his lowest ebb ever. Since we’ve dropped off [holding mass rallies], Howard’s popularity’s gone way back up.”
Belan agreed that rallies have an impact. “People say that what we’ve done to date hasn’t changed the government’s mind, but it lets the employers and the government know that working people control the production, and those that control production control the country”, he said.
Pressuring the ALP
“If the ALP are fair dinkum”, Belan said, “they should already have their policies out on what they’re going to do. How can the Labor Party expect people to vote for them when they say ‘We’re going to throw it in the bin, but we’re going to replace it with ... what?’”
“It’s a disgrace if the Labor Party says they’re not going to repeal AWAs [Australian Workplace Agreements — individual contracts]. Then they’re not a Labor Party are they?”
Simpson agrees that the rallies need to pressure the Labor Party. “That’s exactly what’s got to happen. It’s not just about Work Choices. The 1996 [Workplace Relations Act] was not worth a squirt either and it’s up to us to pressure the [Labor] party to put up a decent industrial relations platform.”
Both Ferguson and Belan support holding a cross-union, mass delegates’ meeting in NSW. Ferguson said: “These meetings strengthen the fighting capacity of the union and delegates. I will certainly be arguing the case for Unions NSW to organise one.”
The Queensland Council of Unions (QCU) is planning a mass delegates’ meeting in the last week of April and Victoria will have one on March 29.
VTHC secretary Brian Boyd told the March 14 Australian that union shop stewards in Victoria would be meeting in two weeks to start mobilising workers for the first nationwide stoppage in June. “There’s been a lot of hubris around John Howard celebrating 10 years in power”, he said. “But there are a lot of workers who are still very angry about his workplace changes, and that will generate a big turn-up in June.”
Boyd said that Victorian unions wanted to “shut down Melbourne” for the protest on June 28. “We’re calling on every Victorian worker to join in”, he said.
In Queensland, the ETU, CFMEU and the AMWU have united to organise a “Light the Fuse” campaign tour. It kicks off in Rockhampton in March, then visits other regional cities, including Gladstone. It will culminate with a mass rally in King George Square in Brisbane on April 7. The tour is not being organised by the ACTU or the QCU, but it will seek the support of the local trades and labour councils in regional centres.
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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