James Vassilopoulos, Melbourne
"If the government touches one, they touch all. We need a national stoppage organised by the Australian Council of Trade Unions and labour councils", Martin Kingham, Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), told 1300-strong union delegates on March 23. His remarks received loud applause.
The meeting was organised by the Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC) to discuss union opposition to the Howard government's planned industrial relations "reforms".
The biggest contingent of delegates came from the CFMEU. Contingents of delegates also came from the Electrical Trades Union, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, Maritime Union of Australia, the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union (TCFUA), the plumbers' union, the meatworkers' union, the Australian Nursing Federation, the National Union of Workers, the Hospital Services Union, the National Tertiary Education Union and the state public service section of the Community and Public Sector Union. The federal government section of the CPSU didn't support the holding of a cross-unions delegates' meeting.
The theme of the meeting was "Fair for all, Not free for all". Opening the meeting, Michele O'Neil, VTHC president and TCFUA state secretary, said that the very fabric of unionism was under threat. "This is the first step, to send to Howard and big business that we won't accept their changes. We will not allow them to wind back 100 years of laws."
Bob Hawke, former ACTU president and Labor prime minister from 1983 to the end of 1991, addressed the meeting. He said that what the Howard Coalition government is proposing for trade unions is "unjust". He said that every worker today has wages, conditions and a quality of life that had been hard fought for by previous generations of trade unionists. At this point, he was heckled by a delegate who shouted: "Cut out the bullshit, it's your government that deregistered the BLF [Builders' Labourers Federation]."
Hawke went on to boast that "every economist knows" that "today's strong economy" is based on the reforms of his Labor government. He also boasted that his government had persuaded unions to give up real wage increases during the 1980s so as to make the economy "strong".
"Howard doesn't say thank you, instead he kicks you in the teeth", Hawke said.
VTHC secretary Leigh Hubbard outlined the nature of the anti-union offensive that the federal Coalition government is launching. He said that this would be the greatest challenge the union movement has faced for a generation. He said that five industrial relations "reform" bills would be considered by the federal parliament before July 1, when the Coalition parties will take majority control of the Senate.
Hubbard said that proposed government legislation would remove "third parties" — unions and the industrial relations commission — from industrial disputes. The federal government would use its powers under the Corporations Act to take over state industrial relations systems. Awards would be stripped back. Union officials would only be allowed into work places twice a year and the right to strike would be severely diminished.
ACTU secretary Greg Combet told the delegates that the union peak body had four key objectives — to oppose the proposed new IR laws, to achieve "a decent and fair outcome", to increase workplace strength and to protect as many workers as possible through state industrial relations systems.
On February 24, however, Combet had told a meeting of 150 unionists that "we should stop bullshiting ourselves that we can stop this legislation" because the Coalition will have the numbers in the Senate and that they should focus on union organisation at the workplace.
Combet outlined to the mass delegates' meeting a three-pronged response to the government's IR agenda — "workplace campaign activity", a "community campaign", and, a "united front across the labour movement". It was not clear from Combet's remarks if any of these would involve unions taking industrial action.
ACTU president Sharan Burrow told the March 16 Australian that the peak union body would not authorise industrial action that could be illegal and make unions liable for fines. Combet had also told a CPSU national council meeting on March 18 that he had never talked about industrial action as a response to the proposed anti-union laws.
Kingham motivated the VTHC motion to the delegates with a rousing speech. He countered the argument by anti-union forces that unionists are only self-interested and greedy by saying that unions often defend people who have little power and may not even be able to join unions. As an example, he pointed out that without the unions there would be no public welfare system. He said that unions need to look after people like those on the disability or sole-parent pensions who also face attack from the Howard government.
"How we fight can inspire workplace organisation and shop stewards", said Kingham, drawing the links between national cross-union campaigns and campaigns at the workplace level. He highlighted the paragraph of the VTHC motion that called on unions to defend members and officials if they are prosecuted for breaches of the Workplace Relations Act.
Kingham said that fighting funds needed to be organised to counter the inevitable fines and legal costs coming from the new legislation. He also foreshadowed an amendment from the floor from Geelong Trades Hall assistant secretary Tim Gooden and Australian Education Union delegate Mary Merkenich that called for a mass delegates' meeting to be convened in the event of a unionist being legally prosecuted for defying the IR laws. The movers of the VTHC motion, Kingham and Australian Services Union official Ingrid Stitt accepted this amendment.
Two rank-and-file unionists addressed the delegates. Sue Symes, a mushroom picker from Mildura, described how her employer had tried to force all of the workers to sign Australian Workplace Agreements and thus force them to accept a big cut in pay. Despite never having had anything to do with unions before, Symes and a group of fellow workers refused to sign the AWAs. Eventually, with the help of her union, the employer caved in and the workers won a union agreement.
Another rank-and-file unionist who addressed the meeting was Derrick Christopher, a CFMEU steward. He said that he had been a building worker for 15 years and he had begun work as a apprentice carpenter. "No boxer fights the same fight twice. It is important belonging to a militant union because it means we can have a decent life and not be treated a second-class citizens."
Christopher said PM John Howard needed to "wake up and smell the coffee and get ready for the rumble".
At the end of the meeting, the delegates unanimously voted for the VTHC motion which called for a statewide stoppage and protest rally on June 30, urged unions in all other states to organise a similar action on June 30, endorsed holding a further protest action in late August or September, and called on the ALP to fight against the anti-union laws and reverse them when next elected to office.
From Green Left Weekly, April 6, 2005.
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