CPSU members rally to defend conditions
By Paul Oboohov
CANBERRA — A majority of Community and Public Sector Union members in the ACT last week voted for lunchtime rallies on November 28 to oppose the Howard government's attacks on public service superannuation and workers' compensation.
The rallies will also condemn the new public service bill and the impending stripping back of public service award conditions. The successful motion was moved by members of the Democratic Socialists in the CPSU.
New public service staff will lose access to the current public service super schemes from July 1. They will be expected to bargain individually for employer contributions, and administration costs will shift from employer to employee.
Employees will be offered a compulsory "choice" of five private super schemes; there will be additional costs for death and disability cover.
The national leadership convened the meetings to vote on a motion advocating a "campaign" to call on the Senate to disallow legislation closing down the public service super schemes. The motion stated that membership meetings about the issue would be called by the CPSU's national management committee, if it "determines this is necessary".
While the leaders' motion was passed, the vote for the Democratic Socialist motion in the ACT showed that CPSU members do not want to limit the campaign to the superannuation issue, but extend it to fight all of the attacks on their working conditions.
They also do not want to leave the fight to the national management committee, which recently failed to initiate a serious industrial campaign to stop sackings in the Australian Tax Office.