The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) has won a significant victory in the industrial dispute at the Sydney car parts manufacturer TriStar. The immediate issue was the safeguarding of workers' entitlements.
In the face of an intense effort by the capitalist media and government politicians to portray the 350 workers as renegades who were threatening Australia's economic future, public opinion stayed stubbornly and overwhelmingly on the side of the workers.
It is no coincidence that protection of workers' entitlement has become a touchstone issue for the unions. In the 12 months since the introduction of the GST, there has been a significant increase in companies going belly up, frequently leaving workers without the money that they are legally owed.
Due to the strong public sympathy with workers in such situations, both the federal government and the Labor opposition have been forced to propose schemes to guarantee workers' entitlements.
The government's proposal would require taxpayers to foot the bill — providing a disincentive for companies to put aside funds. Labor proposes compulsory insurance, possibly run through the superannuation scheme. But this scheme relies on companies continuing to pay money into the fund, despite the fact that many companies approaching bankruptcy default on superannuation payments.
The AMWU's proposed Manusafe scheme is clearly superior to both these options, because it secures workers' entitlements under union supervision.
Although the AMWU did not force TriStar to sign up to Manusafe, it succeeded in establishing a fund with some external scrutiny.
Public support for the TriStar workers is not surprising. It is, as the Sydney Morning Herald's Alan Ramsey correctly identified, partly a result of growing disillusionment with big corporations. Few people believe that a financially shaky company can be trusted to safeguard workers' money.
This is why the Coalition's rabid attack dog, workplace relations minister Tony Abbott, has been unleashed at exactly the wrong time for the government. "Incidents of industrial terrorism across Australia are clearly supported by some senior union officials and is clearly being run by the union movement and its officials", he ranted on July 16. Similar accusations were used to justify calling a royal commission into the building industry. The inquiry is clearly aimed at smearing militants of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU).
During the TriStar dispute, Abbott told an August 2 press conference, "what workers are doing is tantamount to industrial treason". The government's strategy is simple and crude: link the union movement with violence (everyone hates violence) and corruption (everyone hates that too).
The federal government is clearly hoping that this will force the ALP to take a public position on the growing militancy within the trade union movement.
So far, Labor has been wriggling like a worm on a hook. Following Abbott's attack on the CFMEU, opposition leader Kim Beazley solemnly told the press that he didn't like persecution of the unions. But, he added, he didn't like union violence either. He quickly suggested that the topic be changed.
In the TriStar dispute, Beazley conceded that the AMWU was right to fight to protect workers' entitlements, but disagreed with the Manusafe scheme, because it is "too costly for employers". The ALP was quick to urge the TriStar workers to go back to work when the Industrial Relations Commission declared the strike "illegal" because, although it breached no guidelines, it was "threatening the national economy". The workers refused and won.
The ALP's cowardice has nothing to do with public opinion. Big business has arguably never been more hated by workers than now, providing a popular base of support for real campaigns to win back some of the wages and conditions lost during the years of the ALP-ACTU Accord.
Beazley doesn't want to alienate his big business backers. He knows that the capitalists' support for Labor is conditional on the party's ability to control militant unionists, and its determination not to concede to them. The Labor leadership has no intention of supporting those who it views as dangerous to its relationship with the corporate elite, and who it knows it will need to fight if it gets into government.
Abbott's attacks on the unions will escalate as the date of the federal election approaches. It is imperative that the union movement does not rely on the ALP to lead the fight against these attacks. The TriStar dispute indicates how popular real campaigns to defend workers against the corporate elite can be. There needs to be more of them.