Marcus Pabian, Melbourne
On February 4, an historic mass meeting at the Collingwood Town Hall of 1000 Electrical Trades Union (ETU) stewards from across the industry voted for a sustained state-wide campaign for a 36-hour working week. Improved safety, a 5% annual increase in wages and the employment of 200-300 new apprentices will also be key demands.
The campaign aims to reverse the damage caused by the privatisation of the State Electricity Commission (SEC) of Victoria in 1992. "This meeting of all the workers in the industry was the first time since privatisation and the members loved it. The passion is there, the strength is there", ETU state secretary Dean Mighell told Green Left Weekly.
The February 5 Age reported that "a separate meeting of up to 1500 Australian Service Union call-centre workers, supervisors and technicians... also endorsed the campaign."
"We have been working for the last two agreements, over a period of six years, to try and bring the enterprise agreements into line. When the SEC was privatised in 1992, the industry was blown apart. Not just in terms of massive job losses and the regional decline, in places like the Latrobe Valley... but the companies were broken off and sold off", Mighell said.
New apprentices
Mighell explained that the industry has been infiltrated by contractors, and that companies have stopped taking on apprentices. "If you look at the old SEC, it was not run for profit, it was just about providing a safe, reliable electricity service, and it had a social commitment to train kids. It would have 350 apprentices on at any given time".
Now, said Mighell, "the best estimates we can get is that they have got no more than 30 or 40 apprentices state-wide. They did not train one new line-worker apprentice between 1992 and 1997. The industry has got a massive skill shortage."
The ETU is attempting to bring the working week down from 37.5 hours to 36 hours, and to increase the number of apprentices by demanding that companies employ one apprentice for every three tradespeople. This would address the lack of skilled labour and improve safety.
Lacking regulation of their activities, private companies have employed unskilled labour, undermining health and safety conditions. "They are not trained to perform work safely on the system, it puts other workers at risk, it puts the public at risk", said Mighell.
On February 4, the ETU forced a government report on the privatised power industries' safety performance to be made publicly. The mass meeting that day demanded a licensing and registration system to screen unskilled line-workers so health and safety are ensured.
The report foreshadows the introduction of such a registration system. "That's a great victory for us. But the devil is in the detail... We need to make sure that this system is used in a pro-worker, not an anti-worker, [way]", said Mighell.
Opposition
According to the February 4 Herald Sun, Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce and Industry spokesperson David Gregory claims that a 36-hour work week would reduce jobs and increase the cost of doing business.
Mighell rejects this: "If you go back to 1856, the mainstream press of the day screamed with great horror [at] the introduction of an eight-hour working day. They saw it as the greatest social ill of all time. Shorter hours is not anti-jobs, it's pro-jobs... There is absolute evidence that a whole lot of jobs are created by a 36-hour work week, particularly if you draw down the number of hours workers spend doing overtime."
In February 5 Age, Phillip Green from the National Electrical Contractors Association said he "[didn't] see a four-day week happening given the skills shortages in the industry". "The only way to overcome the skills shortage is [training] more apprentices. If they put on more apprentices, 36-hours is very real.", Mighell responded.
Work bans, including on overtime, will begin on February 10, as well as industrial action tailored to each company. The ETU is expecting a long campaign and is prepared to call a state-wide stoppage.
"If they absolutely reject apprentices, absolutely reject shorter hours, then the troops [at the mass meeting] said: 'Let's all go out together!'", explained Mighell.
From Green Left Weekly, February 11, 2004.
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