BY RUTH RATCLIFFE
DARWIN — In the absence of a local stock exchange, the M1 Alliance here has decided to blockade the offices of the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce and Industry, due to its anti-worker stance and its self-declared role as "the voice of Territory business".
Although the NTCCI tries to present itself as a harmless service provider and networking organisation for business, the reality is somewhat different, activists say. The NTCCI provides representation for employers in negotiations and disputes with unions and has agitated against the modest 5.7% living wage claim made by the ACTU, declaring this "money for nothing".
While some were initially concerned that the NTCCI was only representative of small business, not the big multinationals that wield power, others recalled that it was the Small Business Association which, last October, ran an industrial relations seminar claiming "You can avoid: unfair dismissals, paying for overtime, paying penalty rates, paying leave loading, accruing sick leave, accruing annual leave — all with a FREE workplace agreement!"
The Chamber of Commerce is also the local branch of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), which has a notorious record of opposition not only to workers' rights but to those of the unemployed as well.
In its hard-line submission to the McClure Report into welfare provision, the ACCI stated bluntly "Business is not by nature or design a welfare organisation. It is there to earn profits". It dismissed "the notion that the provision of welfare ought, in any way, to be an obligation on business".
The M1 Alliance will officially launch the M1 campaign in Darwin on March 24 at 11.30pm. Lunchtime shoppers will be asked to nominate their worst corporate scumbag, the results of which will be used to determine the route of a "Corporate Scumbags Tour" which will follow the blockade of the NTCCI in the afternoon of May 1.