Socialist unionists discuss struggles

BY MELANIE SJOBERG

SYDNEY — The buzz of 60 talkative union activists was an auspicious precursor to the formal speaking platform at the Socialist Alliance's July 30 forum at the Gaelic Club on union struggles.

Shane Bentley, who received 44% of the votes for the NSW state secretary's position last month's Maritime Union of Australia elections, kicked off the discussion with a description of the anger felt by waterfront workers at refusal of the union's incumbent leadership to organise a fight against the attacks of the stevedoring bosses.

He said that the high vote he received, despite having been on the waterfront for only four years, showed the growing mood for a democratic and militant alternative, especially among the increasing numbers of casuals on the waterfront. Casuals make up around 50% of the workforce at White Bay dock, where Bentley works.

Unionists opposition to the plan by the NSW Labor government to slash 1000 jobs across the administrative and TAFE sectors of the education department was addressed by Socialist Alliance members Jenny Long and Leon Parissi. Long and Parissi are secretaries of the two Public Service Association (PSA) delegate committees that are leading the fight against these cuts.

"This campaign against the job cuts is an exciting development within the PSA", Long said. "While the PSA officials are being cautious about how we fight, the delegates are rapidly learning that if we are to seriously take up the challenge then we need to be the ones making the decisions and directing the campaign."

"The Nelson Review of higher education is a further entrenchment of plans set in train by [federal Labor education minister John] Dawkins and [Coalition education minister Amanda] Vanstone", Michael Thompson, assistant secretary of the NSW division of National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), told the meeting. He argued that the NTEU had played a strong role in staving off attacks from the Howard government through a serious industrial approach and united tactics in the enterprise bargaining process.

The next Sydney Socialist Alliance-organised unionists' forum will be a half-day seminar on August 30, with a keynote address from Martin Kingham, Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.

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From GLW issue 548