CPSU leaders 'forget' to count DEETYA resolution
By Bruce Marlowe
Over the last two weeks, Community and Public Sector Union members in the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs have been voting on how to respond to the Howard government's plans to corporatise the CES.
The official motions, covering a "statement of principles", a community campaign, bans on cooperating with budget implementation and a DEETYA log of claims, all passed with between 86% and 98% of the vote.
Mystery, however, surrounds the fate of a supplementary motion presented by the rank-and-file network CPSU National Challenge, because the CPSU officials didn't bother to count the vote on this resolution!
The National Challenge motion was based on a petition circulated in CES and DEETYA by Paul Oboohov, the ACT representative on the DEETYA National Delegates' Committee. It was sponsored by 12 delegates and proposed an APS-wide industrial strategy against Howard's cuts (instead of the agency-by-agency approach of the Wendy Caird leadership of the CPSU.)
Reports from numerous areas indicate that it received strong support. For example, CPSU members at the five ACT CES offices voted 90% in favour.
The CPSU national office's "neglect" of this response is a telling indication of its attitude to the CPSU membership.