... and ain't i a woman?: The other side

Anna Booth, former joint national secretary of the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union and honorary ACTU vice president has completed her move out of the union movement and into the private sector — to become the new vice president of the Sydney Harbour Casino.
The move may surprise some, but in many ways it is a continuation of the career path she had set up for herself some time ago. For many, the logical move post-ACTU is into the ALP front benches. Booth decided private industry was the way to go. After all, she had already had experience on the board of the Commonwealth Bank and the NRMA.
It is Booth's experience in "negotiating" worker-employer conflict that no doubt qualifies her best for her current position.
In February, when asked where she would most likely end up after leaving the union movement, Booth commented to the Australian Financial Review, "You should never say never, but I will say I never want to work in human resources or industrial relations on the other side". She added, "For me, it would be too much of a back flip. I don't have the stomach to sit on the other side of the table when the workers are asking for a 15% pay rise and tell them they can only have 8."
Let's not split hairs. Booth's role in the new casino may not specifically be in "human resources" or industrial relations, but as vice president she will certainly have a say over the workers' wages and conditions, and the casino's profitability — from the "other side".
Booth waxed lyrical about the expected fun she will have in her new casino job in a recent interview on SBS TV. She took care during the course of the interview to emphasise her "regret" at mistakes she had made earlier in her career — such as speaking out too critically. Such "mistakes" had, she lamented, slowed her ascendancy into the leadership of the ACTU.
Booth is unlikely to make the same kind of mistakes in the private sector. Her role will be clear. Help run the casino as a profitable private business. Use your negotiating skills to mediate disputes with the workers, especially over wages and conditions. Oversee the implementation of enterprise bargaining agreements. Above all, maintain profits.
Booth appears to be taking to her new job like a duck to water. Her departure from the trade union leadership is a blow to their efforts to place more women in high profile positions. But her role in the casino will almost certainly be more of a blow to the men and women who work there. Because in a dispute she will be expected, and paid, to work for the "other side".
By Kath Gelber